All You Need Is Family
by Omille
Summary: Severus Snape had a secret, which was shameful in his eyes. The 2nd September 1987, this "secret", his little sister Isolde, came to Hogwarts as a first-year student. Will he ever learn the importance of family unity, before it's too late? Rated M for language and adult chapters, where violence may occur. Slight OCC. Please R&R, thanks! ON TEMPORARY STANDBY!
1. A Family Secret

Eileen wiped the sweat off her forearm with her sleeve, as the dishes clinked in collision down in the sink. The kitchen was a mess just as the rest of the house. There was a lot to be done, before Tobias would be home. If he found the house like this, then heads would roll. Sighing, she dried the last dish and placed them back in the cupboard, before empting the sink for water and going into the tiny living room. Her empty black eyes glanced around, and inhaled the sharp scent of the many discarded empty beer and whiskey bottles littered everywhere on the floor. A few of them has been broken upon being thrown at the wall during one of their many arguments.

Finding a black bag of plastic, she started collecting them one by one, carefully picking up the broken bottles with a piece of cloth. At least there was deposit on the whole ones. More money for Tobias to drink up. It was not like he had done anything else the last 16 years. His massive alcohol abuse could be a very good reason to the lack of money in the family. If it hadn't been because of their poor economy, Eileen wouldn't have stayed at Spinner's End, but would have found a warmer, friendlier, and much nicer house to live in. A house, there would have been good for children, so her son would have had better circumstances to grown up in. Sadly, it wasn't an opportunity… it had never been one. After Eileen and Tobias' marriage, the house at Spinner's End was the only house they could afford buying with their own money.

One whiskey bottle in particular made her stomach turn. It got worse and in the next second she dropped the bag with the bottles, ran to the bathroom and threw herself to her knees by the toilet. A hand held her long jet black hair back in a ponytail, as she vomited for the second time that day. Keeping her face over the opening, her hand shaking travelled up and found the handle to flush out. Groaning slightly, she forced herself to stand though her body protested. A pale bony hand was put on her stomach, and stroked the area very gently. She knew the reason of her daily vomiting and tiredness, and also her missed periods. A new life was growing inside her womb. Though every mother would be ecstatic of happiness, Eileen wasn't. This child wasn't conceived with "love" like Severus had been. This unborn baby was the result of one of the several rapes committed by Tobias, often in his drunken state of mind. Tobias didn't know of the pregnancy. Dreading his reaction was a nice way to explain how she felt. When he had found out, that Eileen was a witch a month after their wedding, and when she already was pregnant with her son, Tobias ran amok and told her to abort the child, because it would be a freak just like her. Eileen refused, and got beaten half to death. Finally she convinced Tobias about letting her keep her son, saying that their baby could be a squib. A child born to either two or one magical parent, but without any magical abilities. He simply grunted in reply, but nodded and let her keep the "bastard". Would she be able to convince him about letting her keep her child again?

Not even after the birth of Severus, Tobias bothered changing and be a good father. Quite the opposite. His alcohol abuse exploded and he got more and more abusive towards Eileen, while being very neglectful to his son all way through the boy's upbringing. Eileen would have left the house and taken Severus with her, but there was one problem. She had nowhere else to go, and the fear of Tobias running amok and maybe even hurt their son, made her stay in the cold and quite so uninviting house at Spinner's End.

From within the bathroom, the sound of keys getting fumbled into the lock could be heard, and in the next the sound of the door colliding with the wall.

"Hoooney, I'm hooome…" Tobias shouted in a drunken singy-songy matter, before slamming the door shut again.

Eileen took a deep breath, before coming forth from her hide. She found her husband drowning the rest of his beer, before hurling the bottle at the wall. She didn't flinch by the crash, since it had become a part of her life so many years ago. A new crash now and then, maybe one or two more than usual, it was still the same. Tobias stood a bit unsteady on his feet, and turned his head to see his wife standing in the doorway into the bathroom, looking at him. She thought he started to look more and more like a tramp with his extremely greasy shoulder-length hair and dirty clothes. Every day she asked herself why she loved him. Maybe she hoped that the man she fell in love with and married still was in there… somewhere.

"And what are you glaring at?" he asked hard.

"Nothing." she said quietly.

"Then make yourself a bit useful and clean up this damn hole of a house!" Tobias snapped, before going over and shoving her forth.

She didn't protest, but found the black bag and began collecting the rest of the bottles. Trying to ignore her husband's cold dark eyes, which following her every move. Once the floor was visible again, Eileen dragged the now very heavy plastic bag outside the house. The February weather was cold and clouded the most of the time, and many times it could rain for days. After placing the bag in the work shed, where two other black bags with bottles already stood, she returned inside and saw Tobias lying on the couch, getting groggier by the minute as the alcohol got more and more influence on his mind.

"What's the date?" he mumbled drunk.

"I don't know." She replied and would go to the kitchen, but suddenly Tobias shot up from the couch and gripped her wrist, holding her back.

"Why so…*hiccup*… busy?" his balance was really poor now. "I asked *hiccup* you about something. Don't you know it's *hiccup* very improper not to answer?"

"Tobias, stop it. You're drunk. And I don't know what date it is." Eileen said slightly annoyed. That was a lie. It was the 20th February 1976. Normally the dates didn't matter to her, but she had to count the days and months to keep a track of her pregnancy. If she had calculated correctly, the little foetus would be around 11 or 12 weeks now. Eileen knew it only was a matter of time, before she couldn't hide it any more.

Tobias seemed to get pissed by her answer. He shoved her against the wall, where she sank to the floor, making her as small as possible with her legs against her chest and hands upon her head. For several minutes, his yells and different insults sounded louder than they were inside her mind, like thunder went through her poor ears. Then he reached down and roughly pulled her to her feet by the arm, and in the next dragged her up the stairs and to the master bedroom, where he threw her onto the miserable double bed. Eileen lay prone on the bed and shook slightly, but the sound of a belt getting unbuckled made her stiff, and her eyes turning fearful. Carefully turning her head, she saw standing there, pants and boxers down by his ankles. Her eyes went back down and hands clenched the black bedspread tightly, while waiting for the inevitable moment. It would happen no matter what.

"Watch out, I'm coming for you…" Tobias hummed.

The bed cracked under his weight, as he crawled up behind her, positioned her, and threw her ankle-length black dress down over her head. Eileen closed her eyes, and braced herself. She yelped, but bit her fist to drown it. The pain from his sudden and direct penetrations was just as terrible as she remembered. Once sheathed, Tobias sped up and began doing it harder and rougher. Leaning forth, he kept her head pinned into the mattress with a hand, while continuing his misdeed. Now and then, he leant down and bit her skin on her back through the fabric of her dress. Tears started running down her cheeks and onto the bedspread. Not so much by the fact that Tobias was raping her again, but from the fear that his course of action, almost outside before slamming back inside again, maybe would hurt the baby. He knew this was especially painful for her, so of course it was meant to be the favourite.

The whole scenario lasted lesser than ten minutes, before Tobias reached his climax. Eileen felt herself climax as well, and had to bit her fist very hard in a try not to utter any revealing sound. This was so humiliating, and she felt so ashamed and filthy. Then something not so unusual happened to Tobias. The sudden rush of his heart had only sped up the alcohol in his system, and eventually he just passed out from the massive intoxication, and pinned her to the bed under his deadweight. Eileen managed to wriggle out and back onto her feet. Her hair was messy, and her dress had been pulled out of place and fell wrongly around her hips. Rushing out of the bedroom and downstairs to the bathroom, another fit of vomiting surprised her. A shower with an icy finish helped a bit on her physical pains, but not much. Afterwards, she examined herself by letting her wand float in a circle around her stomach and abdomen, muttering a soft healing spell to heal any possible damage caused by Tobias's assault.

Slowly the pains started fading, and the dark wand got a greenish glow. Eileen sighed revealed, the baby was okay. A hand gently stroked the area.

_"I try, baby… I try."_ She muttered. _"Please hang on."_

**.:T:.**

The weather was drizzling at the 26th March, as the woman stepped out of the old 2CV on the parking lot by King's Cross station. The little car seemed so old and poor with its dusty grey colour compared to the larger and much newer and shiny cars holding around. Her thin black jacket was belted around her middle, and showed only a tiny hint of a bump despite being 4 months pregnant. Putting her arms around herself, she hurried inside and through the building to get to platform 9¾. Unnoticed, she slipped through the magical barrier between platforms nine and ten, and arrived at the platform, there, like herself, was full of parents waiting for the Hogwarts Express to arrive, so they could take their children home for the Easter Holidays. How Eileen had managed to persuade her son to go home for the Easter would have been considered a wonder, since he preferred spending every holiday at Hogwarts if possible. But she had told him, that it was an important matter. She had chosen to tell him about the pregnancy, and that he should be a big brother.

Ten minutes later, the majestic black and red train could be seen rolling in from the right side. The white steam formed a long white line down along the train and bright-red passenger carriages, where many students literally hung out of the windows to greet their parents if spotted in the crowd. The train stopped softly, and barely a minute later, the sound of happy reunions and groans of moving heavy luggage filled the platform. Eileen stood up from the bench, and tried to look above peoples' heads, and finally spotted a black-haired young man making his way through the crowds. Eileen walked forth and put her arm around his shoulders, and guided him a little further away, so they could talk undisturbed.

"Hello Severus, it's nice to see you again." she smiled.

"You too, mum." Answered the now 16-year-old Severus, and corrected his shoulder bag. "But you know that I prefer spending the holidays at Hogwarts, where I have the opportunity to study uninterrupted."

"I know, dear. But I would like to see you just once in a while, instead of just in the summer holidays." Eileen said a bit sad, and brushed a lock of long jet black hair up behind his ear. Despite that Severus only was 16, he was almost just as tall as her. "Do you have everything? Wand, books, clothes?"

Severus nodded to his shoulder bag. Eileen smiled and guided her son through the barrier into the Muggle world again. As they walked back through the station, Severus had that well-known tense look in his face. He was never eager on neither returning home nor being forced to face his father. This was one of the major reasons to why he preferred hiding behind the safe walls of Hogwarts. Outside the entrance, the drizzling had turned into pouring rain.

"Wait here," Eileen said, before hurrying across the street to the parking lot. Severus stood and watched, and saw the old car driving up in front, and his mother making herself visible by stepping halfway out. Severus ran over and went to sit in the passenger seat, while his bag got thrown onto the backseat. Eileen then began driving back towards Spinner's End, the rain echoing against the car roof.

"When have we got a car?" Severus finally asked after several minutes in silence.

"It's not ours. I borrowed it from Tom, so I could pick you up and bring you to the station in the end of the week." Eileen replied.

"I could have taken the Knight Bus." Severus stated.

"I know, but you know very well, that your father despises magic of any kind. If the Knight Bus had stopped outside our door, he would have gone mad." Eileen said. "We have to park a bit away from the house, so Tobias doesn't get suspicion about the car. I have problems enough with him already."

"That's no news. You two are arguing so much, that it's a wonder how the roof is still attached to the house." Severus had barely uttered these words, before Eileen abruptly turned the car into a lonely layby, and pushed the break so hard that their heads almost hit the dashboard upon stopping. He looked slightly wide-eyed at his mother, there opened and closed her hands around the steering wheel, while having a somehow tense and uncomfortable look on her shallow face.

"Mum?"

"Severus, do you…" Eileen took a deep breath, before carefully continuing, voice quivering like being close to be on the verge of tears. Her attention was at some point beyond the windshield. "…have any idea why I asked you to come home?"

"No… Mum, are you alright?" Severus asked a bit carefully.

Eileen's bottom lip trembled slightly, but kept looking out of the windshield. "No… no, I'm not alright. Far from…"

"What do you…?"

"You're going to be a big brother."

Those words acted like an airborne slap, which made the young man fell silent like the grave. The words repeated themselves in his mind, while his eyes glanced at her stomach, noticing the tiny bump. To him it was as obvious as it could get, because his mother normally was so skinny, that a broomstick almost would have more curves than her. Eileen glanced at her son, and saw his shocked face. Before he had a chance to ask, she began explaining.

"For half a year, Tobias… he, he has forced himself on me, and I… became pregnant four months ago." A pale hand was put on her stomach like to add to her statement.

Severus first found his speech again after several seconds. "Why don't you report him to the police? They will arrest him and put him in jail, where he belongs."

Eileen shook her head. "I can't. He says that if I report anything, then he will kill both you and me. I don't care what happens to me, but I don't want you to get hurt because of my faults." First now her full attention turned to him. Her hands left the steering wheel, and closed around his, while making a rare eye-contact with the teenager. "If anything happened to you, then I wouldn't know what to do of myself. Severus, I know this might come as a huge shock for you, but you and the baby are everything I have. Though this child is conceived under the wrong circumstances, it's going to be a part of our lives, no matter if we like it or not."

"But what about Tobias? He will go insane, if he finds out." The shock over being told about the addition to the family had still not quite settled in.

Eileen nodded weak. "I know. Tobias will find out sooner or later, but I've decided to let him stay unaware so far. I will conceal the bump with a glamour charm to keep it hidden. But I'll need your help to keep it a secret until it arrives."

"But… will it not come between us?"

Eileen was actually a bit surprised to hear her normally so stubborn and strong son ask such a sensitive question, and that his voice sounded so insecure. She squeezed his hands gently. "It won't, Severus. You're my son, and just because there will be another child born into the family, doesn't it mean that I will love you any less. You will still be a major part of my life, just as the baby will. I don't ask you to be a part of its life, but I would be happy if you at least would consider it."

For a minute, just a tiny minute, Severus was happy for the news and about the thought of becoming a big brother, but the happy feelings soon got replaced by a different emotion. Anger. This made him jump out of the car, out into the pouring rain, whereupon he just began walking away, completely ignoring Eileen's calls and begs for him to come back to the car. Why was he suddenly so angry? Something deep back in his mind said, that Eileen was lying about something in her story. But what part of it? Maybe the last one about that the new baby wouldn't change anything between them. That had to be it. Their relationship would never be the same again. He would be replaced. Instantly the innocent little life inside his mother's stomach had turned into being a nuisance, an extra burden on his shoulders… a much undesired burden. He had not wished to become a big brother, so why did it need his interfering at all?

"SEVERUS!" Eileen called desperate, and left the car to run after him, but before having a chance to get to him, he disapparated back to Spinner's End with a turn of his heel, leaving her to stand all alone in the rain with a lost expression on her pale face. The rain quickly soaking her thin clothes. "Oh Severus…"

Returning to the car, she leant her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes. She thought, it could have been explained better instead of having blurted it out the way she had. Maybe the lack of sugar coat was why he reacted like he did, or perhaps he was just stressed out from his endless studies and school work. Maybe she should leave him alone for a while. Slowly driving back to the beginning of the road leading to Spinner's End, she parked the car on a small parking lot a good bit away, and walked the rest of the way down to the house with Severus' bag over her shoulder. Opening the front door, she saw Tobias lying on the couch with a half-empty beer bottle in his hands. Hearing activity by the door, he saw his rain-soaked wife removing her coat and putting it over the radiator to dry.

"You and the brat are very alike, you both look like drowned dogs today." He mocked. "Not that the change is noticeable."

Eileen ignored him, before walking up the stairs and down the small corridor to Severus' room. The door was closed as usual. Activity could be heard behind the door, but when she carefully knocked on, the sounds stopped.

"Severus, I know you're in there. Can I come inside?" she asked softly. Getting no reply, she tried turning the doorknob but found the door locked. She put her face closer to the wooden barrier and spoke hushed, thinking that Tobias might be listening by the foot of the stairs. "Severus, I know the shock upon these news can be hard to cope with, but it has nothing to do with you. You will not be replaced, if that's what you think. I…" she sighed, and placed the shoulder bag by the foot of the door. "You forgot your bag, so I put it here by the door for you. I'll begin making dinner now, so please come down later, okay?"

"About bloody time! I'm about to die by fucking hunger down here!" Tobias' hard voice could be heard downstairs.

Eileen sighed silently, but stroked the door, before walking downstairs, where Tobias stood and waited for her. Keeping her eyes down in a try to avoid his glare, she walked towards the kitchen, but suddenly felt a hard push in the back, which made her trip and land on all four on the floor.

"Get up, woman, you're not a dog." Tobias snapped, and gave her a kick in the legs. "Though I think a dog soon would be more useful, than you and your sentimental rubbish."

She quickly got up, and went out into the kitchen. While finding a pot to make vegetable stew, tears began running down her cheeks. After placing the pot on the old gas cooker, she put her hands on her stomach and gently stroked the area, like attempting to cradle the child inside. She knew that the baby would always be in danger, while staying in this house.

"I can't hear any sound of cooking!" Tobias yelled from within the living room.

"I couldn't find the pot!" Eileen lied, before giving her stomach a last loving stroke. _"Be strong, my dear. Me and Severus promise to protect you…"_


	2. Broken Silence

The rest of the Easter was full of tension. Yet one of the major reasons for this tension was missing. It was Thursday, and Tobias had been gone since the day before. No one knew of his whereabouts. Not that Eileen really cared. She was used to him disappearing from time to time. Everything seemed so… calm, without his arguing figure around. These two days had been so nicely quiet, which meant time to finally rest undisturbed. However, Severus hadn't left his room a single time, not even to eat. Eileen thought he still might be upset over the news about the baby, but she knew that it must have been jealousy, which was the cause of the anger. She tried hard to get him to come out, but failed all the time. He wouldn't even talk to her, not even through the door, there had stayed hermitically locked ever since. There was abnormally silent in the house. Even the sound of the floor boards sounded louder than normally.

Friday came, time to return to school. Eileen fought her way up from the bed in the master bedroom. She had been ill the whole week with headache and nausea, which had gone from terrible to directly awful. If it was from the pregnancy or mere stress, she didn't know, but vomiting that many times a day couldn't be healthy. Even the smallest thing, like lighting up the fireplace, would trigger it. This condition left her with barely any energy. But Severus should back to Hogwarts, that was for sure. She had planned to drive him back to King's Cross in the morning. Maybe going seeing a doctor afterwards wasn't a bad idea, but a glimpse at the alarm clock made her thoughts go elsewhere. They should hurry, if having any chance to catch the train at 11 am.

Eileen took on a simple long-sleeved dark dress ending just below the knees, worn ballerinas, and a dark-grey cardigan. Leaving the bedroom to go downstairs, expecting Severus to be ready, she got surprised when there was no sight of him in either the kitchen or the living room. Maybe he was still packing or cleaning his room. Going back upstairs and down to his door, there, to no surprise, still was closed, she softly knocked on.

"Severus? Severus, we shall hurry, if we shall catch the train." She said, but got no reply at all. Now both worried and slightly frustrated, she took forth her wand from the inner pocket of her coat, and used Alohomora on his door, there opened ajar with a creaking. Pushing it open to enter the small room, the square of light went along the floor and illuminated the room, giving her a chance to look around, but she found it completely empty and darkened.

"Severus?" she called, while crossing the floor to open the curtains of the window, and the only one in the room, in the furthest wall, but still got no reply. "Severus, we don't have time for this."

Once the small window was uncovered, the room got further illuminated by the sunlight. The room was clean and neat like always, but there was no sight of the teenager, his bag or his school stuff. It was like the room hadn't been used at all. The light got thrown on a small note of parchment, there laid on the middle of the made bed. Reaching down and picking up the note, she unfolded it and began reading, while sitting down onto the bed. It was her son's handwriting, but seemed to have been written with frustration, since the quill had gone through the parchment a few places.

_"Mum, when you find this, I'll be back at Hogwarts. When you left my door the first evening, I took my bag and disapparated back to Hogsmeade, where I walked back to the school. I overreacted back in the car, and I'm sorry for that. I have tried to get used to the thought about what you said, but I can't do what you ask of me. I can't see myself as a big brother, neither now nor later. You said that nothing would change between us, but nothing will ever be the same. It's a shame that it has to be this way, but now I see that you don't have ANY IDEA OF WHAT I'M GOING THROUGH, nor do you seem to care enough to find out how I feel. If you know what is best for yourself, then you have two choices. Either do you report Tobias to the police, or terminate the pregnancy before he finds out. It's your choice. Don't write to me about it. I prefer to stay unaware._

_I'll not return before summer._

_~Severus."_

Eileen's jaw dropped upon reading this, but placed the note to her heart. A few tears escaped her eyes and ran down her cheeks. Well, that explained why he hadn't left his room the whole Easter. Did he really ask her to _abort _the child? Was this how Severus really felt? Was this such an emotional burden for him, that he actually thought the baby would replace him? Standing up, she put his note into the pocket of her cardigan, before going downstairs to sit by the old desk, where she found a quill and a piece of parchment in one of the drawers. After using a minute or two to consider her words, she put the tip of the quill into the inkwell, let the excess ink drip off, and placed the quill onto the parchment and began writing.

_"Dear Severus._

_That could explain, why you were so silent... And maybe you are right. I may not know what you're going through, or what feelings you might have about this 'situation'. You are so quiet about your emotional sides. You never speak about your feelings or problems, which makes me sad and worried at times. But I do know that I do care about you, more than you probably can imagine. If I didn't care at all, then I wouldn't have told you anything or given you that choice, where you freely could decide if you wanted to be a part of the baby's life or not. I'm not disappointed by your choice, not at all, but you must understand, that I didn't agree to this of my own free will as well. But this baby is coming, no matter if we want it to or not. I can't get myself to abort it. Just like I couldn't get myself to abort you, when you were a tiny life in my womb yourself, though Tobias ordered me to. Speaking of him, your father has been missing since Wednesday. I know that I should be happy for that, but I'm not. Though I want to report him so badly for everything he has done towards you and me, I can't. __He's still the man I loved and married… somewhere deep inside._ I'm scared, Severus. Tobias still uses his threat about hurting us, if I report anything. I know, he can't reach you at Hogwarts, but as a mother, I won't take the risk. Please understand… if not for my sake, then for your own.

_~Your Mother."_

After reading the letter through twice, she stood up to go the back garden, where she secretly housed her owl Ailie in a small doghouse hidden behind a thicket in the furthest right corner of the tiny garden. Tobias never went into the garden anyway, so he had no idea about the owl. But before Eileen had a chance to do so, it knocked onto the front door. Putting the reply letter into the pocket with the other, she walked over and opened the door ajar. A white police car held on the road, while two policemen were standing on the doorstep, with a more-dead-than-alive Tobias Snape wrenched in between them by his arms. Tobias had a black eye the size of a football, a split lip, and his hair was a total mess of greasiness, while his clothes were torn several places. _Not another fight…_

"Hello ma'am, I'm sorry to disturb, but we found this man lying in the gutter by Marc's Pub longer down the road, drinking and yelling insults at the passers. Due to the barman's explanation, he has been in a fight. We asked if he didn't want to go to the hospital, but he rather wanted to go home, which, after quite drunken instructions, should be here. Can you confirm it?" the one man, and the tallest of them, asked. "His name should be Tobias Snape."

For a veeeery long moment, Eileen wanted to use the opportunity to shake her head and say that she didn't know him, so the men would drag him off again. But knew it wouldn't help, so instead she just nodded and opened the door wide.

"Yes, he lives here. He's my husband." Eileen said with a hidden disgusted tone. Many would call her mad about still calling Tobias for husband, when behaved as he did and was as he was. "Just put him on the couch, please."

The policemen nodded, handled up in Tobias, and dragged him inside and laid him onto the couch, before heading for the front door. Before leaving, the tallest turned to Eileen.

"You should keep an eye on him the rest of the day. It was a tough job of getting him to follow with us." He said. "He might be unpredictable due to the alcohol."

_"I know that very well…"_ Eileen thought bitterly, but nodded. "I will. Thanks for bringing him home."

The policemen nodded, before stepping out of the door and sitting back inside their car. Eileen watched them drive away, and almost wanted to run after them to be free of the great amount of beatings, there awaited her once Tobias woke up from his drunken slumber. She should not wait long. Barely was the door closed and locked, before a hand tightly gripped her arm and pulled her backwards. Whirling around, she stood face to face with Tobias, there if possible looked even worse than normally.

"Well, hellooooo beautiful…" he hummed with a drunken smile, and backed her up against the wall, until she couldn't get any longer.

"Tobias, please stop…" Eileen tried, but turned her head to the side, when feeling his nasty breath on her neck. She felt a large hand travelling up her side, and gasped inwardly. The bump wasn't concealed with the glamour charm!

Tobias only giggled, well more a mix of a burp and a giggle, while his hand continued its way up her front. Accidently, his fingers brushed the one corner of the two letters in her pocket, there were sticking up from the pocket. That seemed to get his attention, and his hand stopped just before the fingertips touched her left breast.

"What is this?" he looked down, and saw the parchment. Snatching one of the letters out of her pocket, he took a long step back and unfolded the letter.

Eileen turned her head, but her eyes widen in horror. It was her reply letter he had got his hands on. "Tobias, please! Don't read it!" she cried desperately, but too late.

Tobias red the letter, before slowly looking at her. Ice-cold lightings flew from his dark cold eyes, as he crumbled the letter together with one hand under slow and loud movements, making the woman gulp noiseless in fear.

"So, you are pregnant?" he spoke in a deceptively soft tone.

Eileen couldn't do anything else than just nod. Tobias stepped closer with an almost murderous expression. Eileen tried to run for the front door, but he gripped her arm again and pulled her back with such strength, that she fell backwards and hit the sharp edge of the coffee table with her back. Lying on the floor, feeling the pain throbbing through her spine, she looked up at Tobias with fear and pain in her eyes. He stepped closer to stand over her, and threw the crumbled up letter before her.

"Do you remember, what I said last time you were pregnant?" he hissed.

"T-that I should get rid of it…" Eileen replied with as much control as possible.

"Yes, but you didn't do it. I thought it was mere luck, that you convinced me to let you keep the kid, because you said it wouldn't be a freak. Obviously you were wrong back there. And now you're pregnant again…" a calloused hand reached down and gripped a large amount of her hair, and pulled upwards. "Then you are probably also wrong now."

Eileen yelped by the pain, but held around the trapped hair and tried to drag downwards in a try to get him to let go. "Tobias, stop! It hurts!"

Tobias didn't reply, but pulled her to her feet, before roughly pushing her down into the couch. "You will get rid of it, understand? I don't want to be exposed to the humiliation and disappointment by calling another freak my child. Besides, when you haven't been able to teach our son to be normal, then your mother instincts must really be poor."

"But Severus is normal!" Eileen objected, feeling angry by him commenting her abilities as a parent, when she thought Tobias himself was the world's worst parent. He never did anything with his son, never followed him to the Muggle school, never took with him to Diagon Ally for school stuff, and never joined them at King's Cross. Tobias had no hint of parental abilities at all. The only things he could was drinking, yelling, insulting, and exposing her and Severus to physical and mental abuse.

Tobias putted his head down and so close to hers, barely any air separated them. "Then why is he a freak like you? Explain to me, where the normal in being 'one of your kind', is." Again this was with the deceptive soft voice.

"He is normal… in the wizarding world." Eileen said a bit hesitating.

"And here? What is he here in the non-wizarding world?" Tobias hissed. "In the so-called Muggle world as you call it?"

"A…" Eileen knew that he wouldn't stop, before she said what he wanted to hear. "He's a freak." Her heart broke, when she heard himself with very hushed voice call her beloved son such a nasty thing as freak.

Tobias chuckled briefly in triumph. "Good girl," he mocked. "Then what do you think, I want you to do now?"

Eileen looked up at him with tearful eyes. "But Tobias, I can't... I can't do it. It would be murder. It's our baby. There is a 50/50 chance, that the child will have magical abilities or born without any. Please… I'll do _anything_, just let me keep it… please."

Tobias frowned and grimaced, like a lord displeased by a servant. After a minute of thought, he stood up straight and nodded curtly. "Fine, keep it then. But then I won't hear another word about 'it', more bloody magic or anything related to that sick world of yours. Neither do I want to see any magic performed in my house. Understood?"

Eileen almost sighed with relief. "Thank you, Tobias. I promise not to do any magic, or say a word about… it."

Tobias huffed, and rolled his eyes. Eileen thought it was over, but then a hand collided very hard with her cheek. Feeling the pain throbbing through her head again, she looked up at him with shocked eyes. The exposed area of her face was red and slightly swollen.

"That was for that stupid letter of yours. Stop writing such sentimental shit." He spat. "Or do you really want me to make use of my threats?"

Eileen looked at her knees, and shook her head in defeat. Tobias snorted, before walking out of the front door, and slammed it so hard that the walls almost vibrated. Eileen took a deep breath, before finding the letter on the floor, unfolded it and tried to soften it out as much as possible, before returning to sit by the desk. Taking the quill, where the ink at the tip still was liquid, she put the quill to the parchment and added something to the replay.

_"P.S… as I write this, your father has been home and left again seconds ago. He found my letter, and now he knows about the baby. He tried to get me to get rid of it… just like when I was pregnant with you. But back then, I managed to persuade him to let me keep you. I don't know if it's luck, but it succeeded me again. He has agreed to let me keep it… so far. Though I should worry about myself, I can't. I worry more about you, than I do for myself._

_And please… no matter what. You will not be replaced. You have a special place in my heart, that no one, not even the baby, can take from you. I love you, Severus. Don't forget that."_

After reading the letter through, she folded it together, wrote Severus' name on the front, and sealed it with a drop of stearin from the grey candlelight nearby. Finally getting into the back garden, she rushed across the mistreated lawn and over to the thicket, where the doghouse could be glimpsed within. Finding her wand in her dress, she tapped the thicket, and the branches jumped aside and uncovered the opening of the doghouse.

"Ailie." She called.

In the next second, a white and golden barn owl appeared in the opening. Eileen made it jump onto her forearm, and she stroked it lovingly over its feathered head, before holding the letter to it.

"Please bring this to my son, Ailie. He lives at Hogwarts, so you have to fly quite a way. But it's very important, that you give it to him." She instructed. "Will you do that for me?"

The owl howled almost humming in response, before closing its beak on each side by the top edge of the letter. Eileen stroked its head again, before standing up and holding out her arm. Ailie spread out its wings, flapped them a few times, before taking off. Eileen watched how it disappeared higher into the air, and flew ahead until it disappeared behind the roofs of the next row of houses behind the Snapes' home. Eileen rejoiced inwardly by her own triumph. If it just was luck or her begging like a dog for a threat, she didn't know. But she was happy that Tobias had let her keep this baby. But now it was just very important not to piss him off. You could call it vital now. Vital for the unborn life in her stomach, there would grow stronger by each passing day.


	3. Born to be Ignored

The rest of March passed, and so did the following months. Since mid-February, the weather had been cloudy, drizzling and dank. But in the end of April, it started to change. The clouds began getting smaller, and revealed the now pretty crystal-blue sky. It had also got warmer in the air. The trees, which seemed to be in habitation the most of the year, began sprouting leaves, and small spots of grass with flowers began could be seen everywhere. All in all, the summer had arrived.

However, inside the small row house at Spinner's End, the tension had returned and was as thick as ever. It was the last days of July, and Eileen's stomach had grown. Not much, but noticeable. The few gained pounds must be the baby's weight alone. There was no reason to conceal it, since Tobias knew of it now. But his mood had not been good in the last couple of weeks. Not that it ever had been good, but right now it was worse than normally. Tobias was a sizzling thundercloud, because he had lost his job on the textile mill due to lack of attendance and aggressive behaviour. Yet there was still money enough to drink out your brain in the weekends. It annoyed Eileen, that Tobias showed no interest in saving just a bit for the baby. She had kept a little amount of baby clothes from Severus' early childhood. Though the gender of the baby was unknown, she had a feeling that it would be another boy. Not that it mattered, just as long as the baby was healthy.

Also Severus had used most of his time alone, since returning home some weeks ago for the summer. When he wasn't out wandering the streets for hours, he sat in his room and studied for his seventh and final year at Hogwarts. He only came down to eat breakfast and dinner, whereupon returning into the world of solemness in his room. But not before Tobias had taken his frustrations out on his son and wife, yelling and complaining about "what hell of a life he was living", and that he was "too good for this crap". His punishment had got worse since the loss of his job. Recently, not even two days ago, he had slapped Eileen twice on each cheek, before going for Severus, who stood against the wall, wand raised in defence. Tobias most certainly would have broken the magical item, and beaten his son half to death, if Eileen hadn't put herself between them, and taken the beating. Severus fled to his room and refused to come out, before it was time to leave for Hogwarts.

* * *

One evening some days later, Eileen couldn't sleep. Tobias had collapsed onto the bed in the master bedroom, and pretty much lay horizontally across the bed, so Eileen had decided to sleep on the couch downstairs. It might not be very comfortable, but there was a bit cooler and not strangling hot like upstairs, where the air never had a chance to circulate properly.

Eileen groaned weak. Her whole body had been in pain the most of the evening. Going into the bathroom, she closed the door and went to stand by the sink, where she found a small cloth, wet it in cold water, and began dabbing her sweaty collarbone, shoulders, neck and face. The small clock on the wall showed the time. It was almost 3 in the morning on the 5th day in August. Putting the cloth back onto the sink, she would return into the living room, but just as her hand would close around the doorknob, a sudden and burning pain made her yelp and grasp her stomach. She recoiled from the door and leant against the wall with a hand. It felt like being stabbed several places at the time. But when a pressing on her abdomen mixed with the pain, the doubt was gone immediately. It was labour pains. But if the child was born now, it would be 3 weeks premature.

The pain grew stronger by the minute, and it convinced her that the baby was on its way. _What to do now?_ It was out of the question to go to the hospital, though it was to prefer instead of giving birth at Spinner's End. Even the most unwanted child didn't deserve that kind of horrible start on life. But using magic to ease the pains wasn't an option either, because of her promise to Tobias. Then something she had red in a baby's book popped into mind. That giving birth in hot water should have a natural pain killing effect. Not that she believed that, but right now she was ready to try anything.

After a few minutes, and when the tub was filled almost to the edge, Eileen discarded her clothes and went in. The hot water truly had some kind of pain killing effect, but it was not quite enough. It still felt like someone stood and jumped on your abdomen. An hour or so passed with small yet strong contractions, the interval between them still growing shorter, until there were about 5 minutes in between, each lasting lesser than a minute or so.

Ten minutes later, and a bit hesitating, she lowered a hand down to feel for any progress, and stiffened when her fingertips touched the baby's head, which was just starting to crown. There was no going back now. It was time to push. She tried to get into a better sitting position for the upcoming part, by sitting as comfortable as possible against the low backrest behind her, the coolly porcelain was covered by a dark towel, and held her legs pressed against each side of the tub.

The contractions grew stronger, a whole lot more painful, and came more often. The intervals couldn't be more than 1 or 2 minutes now, but felt shorter because of the horrible pain. The urge to push got stronger too. _"What if I'm not dilated enough? What do I do now? How do I deliver the baby?"_ the same questions constantly repeated themselves over and over inside her head. She somehow hoped that someone would burst through the closed bathroom door and help her through the birth, but knew that the harsh reality had other plans. While constantly holding a hand to the baby's head, Eileen breathed deeply and began pushing hard, trying to hold it the 10 seconds, gritting her teeth in a try to kill or at least muffle the cries of horrible agony, there was close to becoming unbearable.

Every inch of her body hurt by the contractions, but the head crowned a little more after each one. After half an hour, the head was fully out, and Eileen saw that the baby had its face turned upwards, looking at her. It was such a weird feeling, but also quite… wonderful. Severus' birth, which back then happened at the hospital, had been completely different. He was born breech, and had caused great problems for the poor doctors, who didn't have much experience in delivering a breech baby. She smiled weak when remembering it, but the contractions made her snap out of her thoughts. By the next two concentrations, the tiny neck and the top part of the child's shoulders came out. When the small arms came out, her hands went to hold around the baby's waist, and a few seconds later, after one last deep contraction, Eileen heard herself utter a loud gasp of pain as the rest of the baby slipped out. The bathwater turned a faint red because of the following blood. Sitting up, she lifted the baby from the depth and into her arms. She smiled relieved but also happily. It was a baby girl. But Eileen's happy smile vanished and her eyes turned worried, when the baby didn't cry after almost ten long seconds. There were some weak movements but no crying. Then Eileen spotted the umbilical cord was wrapped once around the baby's neck. Holding the baby in left arm, she very carefully removed the cord. But still no crying sounded.

"Come on baby, please cry… cry." She begged, while gently rubbing the girl's tiny chest and back. "Please cry for mummy."

She focused so much on making her daughter cry and breathe, that she didn't notice the placenta, which had unnoticed delivered itself, and umbilical cord disappeared due to an accidental use of non-verbal magic. Finally, after what felt like minutes, a wonderful sound filled the bathroom. It was not a loud crying, but it was crying, and her small chest rose and sank in almost hiccuping moves as the tiny lungs took in vital oxygen.

Eileen leant back against the wall, and laid the little girl on her chest directly by her heart, while now taking her time to look the little new family member over. Because of being born so early, she was small of size and a little pale, but had strands of dark hair on her little head. She had all ten fingers and toes, adorable small ears, and soft facial features. And the relief was close to be complete, when the baby hadn't inherited Tobias' nose like Severus unfortunately had, but had a straight and cute little nose. The newborn girl was absolutely perfect in Eileen's eyes, but the new mother wondered like crazy what eye colour the baby girl might have? Dark as hers or cold grey like Tobias'? Maybe whole other colours like blue or green? Eileen pulled down a towel from its handle next to the tub, and carefully wrapped it around the baby.

"Happy birthday, my dear." Eileen smiled and kissed the girl's head, as she had calmed down to the sound of her mother's heartbeat.

But then the door slammed open, making the baby squall frightened. Eileen whirled her head in the direction, and saw Tobias standing in his long boxers and an untied dressing gown. He looked tired and quite annoyed.

"How the hell do you think we are supposed to get some sleep in this hou-…?" Tobias began, but then noticed the baby on Eileen's chest. "And what is _that_?"

"Your daughter." Eileen answered, but first now noticed the missing placenta and umbilical cord. fearing that TObias might come over and notice it, she hugged the girl closer, but to her surprise, Tobias didn't move out of place. He just stood there in the doorway with an unreadable look on his pale face, probably not caring at all. Still under influence of the side effects by drinking too much, he just nodded whereupon returning to the master bedroom. You could hear him stomping all way upstairs.

Eileen sighed, and gently kissed the girl on the dark hair in a try to comfort her. The baby slowly fell into slumber on her mother's chest. Eileen smiled, but then heard activity by the door again. Fearing that it was Tobias again, she got another surprise by seeing Severus standing in the door with a serious look, dressed in a pair of black sweatpants and a grey shirt, both seemed at least two or three sizes too big for his scrawny size.

Eileen smiled carefully. "You have got a little sister, Severus. I think she was impatient to say hello."

For some unknown reason, the teenager stepped into the bathroom and over to the tub. Though it was quite embarrassing to see your mother stark naked, he tried to keep focus on the baby, there made these small grunt-like noises. Eileen heard this and got a look of concern and slight discomfort on her exhausted face.

"I think that she freezes. Can you please take her, while I get up?" she asked him, while cocooning the baby into the towel.

Severus looked if possible more uncomfortable now, than by the first news about the family addition. He had _no_ wish to hold or even be near the kid, but it was like no choice was given. He didn't want to be a part of this… mess, but felt like being forced into it already now. With a displeased face, he reached down to gather the baby in his arms. Standing by the wall, while his mother got dressed and cleaned up the bathroom, he managed to the best of his ability to ignore the infant, who moved slightly in its towels and began whimpering.

"Mum, please take her again. I think she's going to cry." Severus said.

Eileen, who had got dressed again, went over and carefully lifted the baby into her own arms again. "There, little one. There's no need to be unhappy. That's Severus. He's your big brother."

The baby felt its mother's well-known scent and safe arms, and stopped whimpering. Severus stood and watched how Eileen rocked the baby back and forth, while whispering soothing words. The jealousy within him grew stronger. Mostly because he was convinced, that this kind of motherly love never had been given him at that stage. His hands fisted briefly, but slowly opened again.

"What's her name?" Severus heard himself asking, though he couldn't care any less.

Eileen smiled lovingly. "I want to call her Isolde. I found it in a book a little while back, and thought it was such a pretty name. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl."

Beautiful? He didn't understand, why women thought these… beings, were as adorable as they said. That they looked like small angels and various other beautiful things. To him, his newborn little sister was not pretty at all. Quite on the contrary, he thought that she was rather ugly. Like an old wrinkled and almost bald man. What women found so adorable about that was a mystery, there probably never would be solved.

* * *

Some time passed. Isolde was four months old, and grew and gained weight as she should. She slept many hours at the time, and only cried when hungry. Eileen had used a chance by Tobias' absence to conjure a magical diaper, there besides cleaning itself also grew together with its wearer, so it all the time was the right size. She had used the same trick with Severus, when he was a baby. It had saved them the loads of money, Muggles normally would have used on diapers for their babies.

Though Isolde was a very easy child and smiled a lot, the atmosphere in the house didn't get any better. It was the day before Severus should leave for Hogwarts, after spending the Christmas, but quite so reluctantly, at home. He had planned to use this last day to go to Diagon Ally to buy some school stuff, and then stay alone in his room to pack. Unfortunately, and to his great dismay, his mother had other plans.

"But mum, I don't have time to watch her!" Severus objected, when his mother was standing in his room, dressed in her long dark coat.

"That's strange. You say that every time I ask you to watch Isolde." Eileen looked at him. "Why are you so reluctantly about it?"

Severus was right about to reel off the numerous reasons why, but didn't. Instead he just shook his head.

"I just can't." he said. "I need to buy my school books, so I can't stay home."

Eileen sighed. "Look, your father is out, and I don't want her to be alone. You are the most responsible in this family. Besides, I'm going to Diagon Ally anyway to buy food for Ailie. I can pick up your books on the way."

"Why can't you just take her with you? That would be easier for all four parts." he suggested stubbornly.

"I know, but we don't have the car now, and I don't want to disapparate with Isolde, because she's so small." Eileen said. "Besides, it's only a few hours. She's asleep and has been fed, so she shouldn't cause any trouble right now."

Severus hissed inwardly. There it was again. No choice given. Gone was the choice about being a part of Isolde's life or not. Though he had explained, up to several times, that he had no interest in doing so, then his answer seemed to have been ignored every single time. After a minute of thought, he nodded in reluctant defeat.

"Fine then." He found the list of needed items, and handed it to her. "But what do I do, if she starts crying?"

"Rock her gently back and forth, talk to her. I'm sure you'll find out of something." Eileen said and putted the list into her pocket, before leaving the room.

Severus waited, until he heard the well-known _swoosh_ of a person disapparating, before finding his trunk in the wardrobe and threw it open onto the bed. Due to a cruel joke made by his arch-rival, James Potter, his old cauldron had melted, and forced him to buy a replacement, which, to his regret, had turned out to be a so-called collapsible cauldron, because it at the time was cheaper than a normal solid cauldron of iron. Almost angrily, he threw it into the bottom of the trunk with a hollow _clonk_, before throwing his Muggle clothes on top of it. Yet he handled his school clothes with more care. Anything related to his "true home" deserved to be handled with respect. His wand was hidden in a secret space in the back of the wardrobe, so Tobias wouldn't find it. Carefully finding it forth, he turned the precious item between his fingers, inspecting the long piece of shiny black wood. It was flawless like always.

An hour or so later, when he was rummaging through his old schoolbooks, he heard a noise from the master bedroom. Crying. It sounded like Isolde was awake. For several minutes, he tried to ignore it and hoped she would fall asleep again. When it wasn't the case and the crying continued, he threw the book onto the floor, stood up and went into the other room. In a corner stood a crib of black iron. It was as simple as it could get, and wasn't decorated in any way. It reminded more of a square cage without the lid than a proper baby bed. It was not quite pretty to look at, but it was there Isolde was forced to spend the most of her day. You could see her move unhappily between the thin bars. Crossing the room, he looked down and saw her lying there, crying and ugly and pathetic, under her little grey quilt, which had been kicked off. Her full-body baby romper was an in dusty brown-greenish colour, and was too big for her size. Her hair had grown a little, and was not jet black as her brother's, but more a dark chocolate-brown like Tobias' had been before dying it black.

"You should be asleep, instead of wasting my time." He said sour, but didn't pick her up.

Isolde heard the voice of someone known present and stopped crying. Her pretty dark eyes opened and looked up to see her big brother standing there. Her small arms reached up for him. Severus watched her in bewilderment and mild annoyance for a minute or so. When she realized, that he wasn't going to do anything, she began whimpering. He knew the damn crying would begin again soon, so he sucked up his pride and picked her up, but the whimpering continued. He didn't know what to do with her. Eileen said that she had been fed, so it couldn't be that. And the changing did itself, so it was not that either. Then it could only general coddling. He knew that babies were like that without any reason, but mostly in a try to get attention.

"I really don't have time for this…" He snarled low, and put her back into the crib, but Isolde uttered a squall in protest. He almost came to the door, but groaned in annoyance and went back. "Okay fine, you win!"

Not knowing what else to do, he began pacing around the room with her resting against his shoulder, rocking her rather stiffly up and down. But it was still like Isolde could feel his uncaring and coolly behaviour, and it only made her whimper turn into crying, making his annoyance grow into frustration. Merlin, give him patience! For several minutes, he walked around the room, rocking her up and down, but the crying didn't stop. Merlin, give him some _much needed_ patience! His head began hurting from all that damn crying. God, the want to use a silencing spell was overwhelmingly tempting, but sadly it was still illegal for him to practice magic outside Hogwarts. Instead he sat down onto the bed and placed the infant on his lap, but still so they were more or less facing each other.

"For Merlin's sake! Isolde, stop crying!" his words came out in a yelling tone, which only made Isolde give a long high-pitched squall.

"Okay, I'm sorry for yelling at you, but what is it you want?" he groaned, but then a slam from downstairs made his ears stiff.

"What is that for a damn noise?" someone yelled downstairs. "Someone get the brat to shut up!"

A door colliding with the wall, hard stomping, and yelling? Yep, Tobias had returned home. He couldn't care less about the baby girl, hated every tiny voice, and just the mere sight of her little figure. Once it had become more than obvious. Two weeks ago, when Eileen was nursing her daughter in the bedroom, Tobias walked in and saw it. He went furious and shouted, that no one else than him was allowed to touch her breasts, and that Eileen instantly should stop. Isolde began crying, and then hell broke loose. Tobias snatched brutally Isolde out of her mother's safe arms, and locked the crying girl inside the cold and dark closet under the stairs. Eileen tried desperately to get to her, but Tobias went violent and began beating her. Isolde was first rescued after 4 hours, and was close to be hypothermic. Luckily the baby girl got well again.

Though Severus was aware of his lack of good big brother skills, he still didn't want Isolde to be exposed to the same thing again. Quickly standing up, he went over and put her back into the crib. Isolde began whimpering, but he placed a finger to his lips and one to her tiny ones.

"Shh… You have to be quiet." He hushed, while putting the quilt over her. Isolde looked at him, but seemed to understand and stopped whimpering. Actually she went all silent, while starting to chew on her finger. Severus gave her a last look, before returning to his own room and sat down on the floor among the books, just as Tobias slammed open the door. Severus succeeded to get his normal stone face back on, when turning to look at his father.

"Why did the brat cry?" Tobias demanded to know.

"Why should I know? She's a baby. They cry all the time without reason." Severus said, while keeping his eyes on the books he pretended to be sorting. Taking a book into his hands, eyeing it briefly, before putting it aside for another.

Tobias snorted low, and closed the door again. Not seeming to be interested in knowing where his wife was. Severus took a deep breath, shook his head, and returned to more important matters than being babysitter. _Hogwarts matters._


	4. Saved by a Letter

**To see Isolde as 11 year old: Go and google Hailey Sole, and add "Daisy Tyler" after the name. Her hair is a darker brown, than on the pictures. (I'll try to put up links of how Isolde changes for each school year)  
**

**!Warning! This chapter contains child abuse!**

* * *

Years passed, and Isolde developed into a young personality. By the age of ten, it was obvious that all the good genes for sure had passed on to her alone. Either that or God really had taken his time in her case. She was blessed with a lean figure, a smooth face, fair skin, dark eyes, and very long dark hair. Her nose was straight, and had no hook or any hint of it like her brother's. If you didn't know her, and you saw her walking with her mother, you would never think Isolde belonged to that family.

Severus had moved out shortly before Isolde's 6th birthday, not even saying goodbye or telling where he went to live, but just that he worked as a professor at Hogwarts, so that was probably his new home as well.

Though Eileen tried her hardest to spare her daughter from Tobias' abuse, she failed many times. Due to Tobias' harsh and turbulent way of upbringing, the girl had learnt to control her emotions, and preferred not to speak openly about them either. Sometimes she felt that her last sanctuary was her own mind, which luckily still was her own. She never really spoke of her problems, wishes or fears… like nightmares. _The nightmares_. They were always the same. Sitting and crying in a corner, her hands covering her ears, while watching her poor mother getting beaten. The sight and cries of agony had left scars in the young girl's fragile soul. The only thing there kept her, most of the times, cheered up, was the knowledge of her "true" heritage. Isolde knew that she, her mother, and Severus were magical beings, and there existed two worlds. A Muggle world and a wizarding world, there was unknown to the Muggles, except the ones with magical children born into the family. Tobias knew very little of the wizarding world, but despised everything related to it. How it had succeeded Isolde not to perform any accidental magic in her younger years was a wonder, but a very good thing seen with Eileen's eyes. Tobias had started to believe, that Isolde was a so-called "Squib" and not a freak. Yet it didn't make her any more popular, Tobias was just as uncaring like always.

It was some days after her 11th birthday. It was nine in the morning, and Isolde silently hurried downstairs hoping to eat breakfast before Tobias, but was disappointed by seeing him already sitting by the dining table. Hands on a mug of black coffee, and with eyes more asleep than awake. How long had he been up? By the sink stood a third empty beer bottle, which wasn't there yesterday night. Again he had started the day with drinking beer, but it wasn't like it was abnormal. The man glanced up, and saw her standing there.

"Go get the mail." He grunted.

"But I'm hungry." Isolde said a bit carefully.

"Go get that bloody mail, or you won't see food for a week!" Tobias yelled.

Isolde knew that nothing good would come out of arguing with her father, so she left the kitchen, crossed the small living room, and saw that there truly enough laid a tiny pile of envelopes on the doormat by the door. Isolde bent down and picked up the mail, whereupon looking it over. It only seemed to consist of bills. There was a gas and electricity bill, a bill which seemed to be from Tobias' favourite pub, a bill for the rent of the house, and… a letter for her. But she had never received a letter in her life. The handwriting on the front was very nice, and started longest to the left but went slightly across the front to the middle. (**Attention**: see bottom for info of the address)

**"Ms I. Snape**

** The smallest Room upstairs,**

** Spinner's End**

** Northern Manchester,**

** London"**

Turning the letter around to see, who had sent the letter, she saw a seal with the letter "H" imprinted in the little spot of red stearin, there kept the letter closed, and another seal, the shape of a crest, just above in black ink. The crest showed four animals; a lion, a snake, a badger and an eagle with spread wings. Going over to sit in the couch, she put the bills onto the coffee table, and began to open her letter. Inside was two other letters, both written with the same nice handwriting.

**"Dear Isolde Snape,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Minerva McGonagall**

**Deputy Headmistress."**

Hogwarts? Wasn't that the school, where where wizards and witches like herself got educated, and her brother lived and worked? God, the two siblings hadn't seen each other for five years. Finding the other page, she saw a long list of items necessary. There among three set of black robes, a pointed hat, and a wand. But what brought a crack in the excitement was the list of books needed; that many books had to cost a fortune. Money which neither she nor her family had. And one thing she couldn't get herself to do was asking her mother for money, when Eileen worked hard to make the few available money last as long as possible.

"Where's that damn mail?" Tobias yelled from the kitchen.

Isolde put the Hogwarts letter into the pocket of her pyjamas pants, before bringing the bills out to her father, there snatched them out of her hand and made a dismissing move with his head. Isolde quickly returned into the living room, and saw her mother coming down the stairs. Isolde found forth the school letter, and went over to her.

"Good morning, sweetie." Eileen smiled and stroked her over the hair, but then noticed the envelope in her daughter's hands. "What's that?"

Isolde showed her the envelope with a questionable look. "It's from Hogwarts. It's… my acceptance letter."

Eileen paled, and got an unreadable expression on her face. Without saying anything, she guided Isolde upstairs and into her small bedroom, where Eileen closed the door and nodded to the bed, where they both sat down. Eileen looked from the letter to her daughter, who sat opposite her.

"Have you shown your father the letter?" she asked.

"Of course not, mum." Isolde replied a bit serious. "But what about Tobias? He has all the time thought I was a Squib."

Eileen shook her head. "I knew all the time you would be a witch, and I think, though he hates the thoughts of it, that he knew the possible risk of you would turn out to be magical like your brother. I tried to keep your existence a secret, but he found out after a while."

Isolde looked uneasy. "Mum, I don't want you to suffer because of me. I've seen and heard how dad reacts, when the wizarding world is mentioned. I also need money to buy my school books and equipment. Money which I know we don't have. If it is too much trouble, then I can write Hogwarts and decline to become a student…"

Eileen glared at her like having heard wrong. "Don't do that, Nola. I want you to go to Hogwarts, where you are safe. It's going to be tight, but I'm sure we can figure it out with the money. The books won't be a problem, because Severus left all his old ones for you to use."

"Really? Where are they?" Isolde asked surprised.

Eileen smiled, as she knelt down by the bed, reached under it, and took out a tiny but oblong cardboard box. Before Isolde had a chance to ask, Eileen began explaining. "Severus left all his old schoolbooks, and shrunk them before moving. Mostly to save space, and prevent Tobias from finding them. _Finite_."

After saying the spell, the box swelled quickly in size and regained its normal size. Isolde looked wide-eyed.

"How did you do that?"

"Finite Incantatem, or just Finite. It can be used to negate spells or the effects of spells. You will learn that and much more at Hogwarts. Come and look." Eileen smiled.

Isolde knelt down next to her, and watched how Eileen opened the lid. Inside was nothing but books, shrunken and placed in seven rows, one row of books for each Hogwarts year.

"The row to the far left should be the first year books." Eileen said. "I think Severus has placed the books after what year you are on."

Isolde went for the certain row, and picked up the top book. The title was small, but she could just read it. _"The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)"_ by Miranda Goshawk. Hey, that was one of the books on her list. Putting it onto her bed, she took the rest of the row of books up and placed them on the bed as well. Eileen used the spell to make them regain normal size. They were actually in pretty good condition despite how old they were. Isolde found her list of school items, and went through the books.

"They are here, all eight first year books." Isolde said. "But how shall I transport it all? The books together with all the other school equipment will weigh a ton."

"I'm sure that Severus left his old school trunk, when he moved." Eileen rummaged through the box, and found what looked like a small brown brick with golden edges squeezed in between the far right row of books and the side of the box. She put it onto the floor, before shrinking the box and the books again, and pushed it all under the bed. Then she used Finite on the "brick", which returned to its original size. The "brick" was a large antique-styled brown-red trunk with the Hogwarts insignia on the middle of the lid. The edges were golden, and two golden "threads" went around the middle. There was a leather handle in each end, and three locks in front, which could be locked by padlocks. It was clear that it was used, because of some small holes and bumps in some places.

"Oh, and mum, what do they mean by they are awaiting my owl?" Isolde suddenly remembered.

"It means that they expect you to send them a letter, where you accept to become a student at Hogwarts. You can send your reply with Ailie. You better do it today, so it's done." Eileen said, while standing up. "Now, I'll go downstairs and make breakfast. Just come down, when you feel like it."

Isolde nodded, and waited until her mother had left the room, before she got some paper and a pencil. Around twenty minutes passed, before she came downstairs with the two letters. The one was the reply letter, and the other was for her brother. She had hidden her Hogwarts letter in the trunk. Her eyes were so focused on the letters in her hands, that she didn't notice Tobias storming out from the kitchen.

"Bills, bills, nothing but bloody bills!" he cursed loudly. "Why is there never any money in this damn house?"

Isolde's eyes shot up, and tried to hide the letters behind her back, but too late. Tobias had seen it. His eyes grew cooler, while stepping closer. "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing. Where's mum?" asked Isolde as neutral as possible.

Tobias didn't answer, but was now barely an arm's distance from his daughter, his open palm was held out. "Hand it over."

When nothing happened after four seconds, Tobias exploded. "HAND IT OVER, I SAID!"

"NO!" Isolde tried to run around him to get to the kitchen, but Tobias gripped her arm tightly to hold her back. She uttered a cry of pain and wriggled to get free, but he managed to wretch the letters out of her hands. But Isolde wouldn't give up without a fight. She started hitting and pulling in his clothes in a try to reclaim the letters. All the noise had made Eileen run back inside after feeding Ailie, and she gasped in shock, when seeing her husband and daughter fighting each other. Eileen ran forth and pulled Isolde away from him. Recoiling to stand near the doorway, having an arm protecting around her daughter, they watched how Tobias collected himself and ripped open the letters, and threw the envelopes onto the floor. The next few minutes were full of tense silence, where no word was uttered or breath was taken. The first sound breaking the horrible silence was the sound of paper slowly crumbling for then hitting the floor. Tobias's head slowly turned, and the ice-cold lightings shot towards the girls.

"You said the brat wouldn't be a _freak_." He hissed.

"I did, Tobias, but I said that there still would be a risk…" Eileen tried, tightening her grip in Isolde, who held just as tightly on to her mother's hand. "But Isolde is going to Hogwarts just like Severus did. Her abilities are a precious gift and not a curse, like you think them to be."

"I DECIDE WHAT TO DO IN THIS HOUSE!" Tobias shouted in fury, as he stepped forth and yanked Isolde out of Eileen's grip, and started dragging the young girl by the hair through the room and up the stairs. "I WON'T HEAR A WORD ABOUT MAGIC, ABOUT THAT FREAK PLACE, OR ANYTHING ELSE!"

Isolde wriggled and screamed, but it didn't help. Tobias threw her roughly inside her room, before locking the door from the outside. You could hear Isolde bang on the other side of the door, telling him to let her out. Eileen came running, but Tobias placed himself in the way, seething with fury, and slapped her very hard, before she had a chance to speak. A warning almost threatening finger was raised at her.

"I'll go out for a while, and when I return and sees any signs of the door being opened, I swear that I'm going to whip the skin off you and the brat. Is that understood?"

Eileen looked at him, her cheek was fire-red, and tears threatening to break free. Reluctantly she nodded and bowed her head in defeat. She didn't want Tobias to hurt Isolde more than already done. Tobias snorted and shoved her aside, as he went back downstairs and out of the door, which closed shut with a slam. Eileen carefully went forth to the door.

"Isolde, are you alright?" she asked worried.

"I'm fine, but mum, why is Tobias so mean to us? We haven't done anything to annoy him." Isolde asked. "Why does he hate the wizarding world so much?"

"He sees the wizarding world as something unnatural, and wizards and witches nothing but freaks and scum, there should be burnt. But you are not a freak, Nola, though he calls you it. You shall be proud of having magical abilities." Eileen replied. "I'll go downstairs and see if I can save your letters, and then send them off to Hogwarts. But I'm afraid, that you cannot get out of your room the rest of the day, because I won't risk Tobias hurting you."

"Yes. It's probably best that way." Isolde's voice was low, clearly feeling her mother's worry.

* * *

The clock was way past midnight, when Tobias finally returned home. He had spent the rest of the day on Marc's Pub, where he had tried to relieve his aggressions by drinking. Sadly it only had the opposite effect, and made him drunk to a point, where normal people would have passed out long ago due to the heavy intoxication. Even the tiniest thing could make him explode in fury. Several of the other guests in the bar had already felt that, including the owner Marc, there literally had been thrown through a window and had broken a rib. The police was called and threw Tobias out of the pub, whereupon they told him very strictly to behave. It was only because the detention was too crowded, that he had been let free.

After ten minutes of time, Tobias finally found the right key and got inside. He was even more unstable on the legs than a toddler. The fury was still pumping through his veins. After slamming the door shut, he stomped upstairs, the fury getting stronger by each step. If it wasn't freed very soon, then something worse than just a fight would happen. Though the tiny corridor, he fell from the one wall to the other a few times, until hitting Isolde's door. The bang made the girl nearly fall out of the bed by fright. Could it an intruder?

Tobias got up and stared oddly at the door, thinking that it was the door into the master bedroom. A shaking hand tried turning the doorknob several times, but it didn't open. Why was the door locked? Maybe that bitch to Eileen had locked it to punish him. Oh, she was in trouble now.

After some fumbling, his hand found and turned the key in the lock, and the door unlocked with a click. Isolde, feeling her heart racing along, watched with fear, how her door creaked open and revealed the figure standing there in the dark. There was a sound of a hand patting the wall in the search for the light switch. The lamp hanging from the ceiling got turned on a moment later, but only illuminated the room in a weak light. But it was just enough for Isolde to recognize the figure as her father. Tobias' lips were parted, his teeth were tightly gritted, and hands fisted. A total wild look appeared in his already faraway eyes. That brat… she was the source of his fury and all the problems. His fury should be freed, and what better way than taking it out on the source itself? Uttering a roar, he ran forth and dragged Isolde out of her bed and onto the floor, whereupon he began beating her. Isolde screamed and curled into a ball, and tried to shield her head with her arms. She could feel his fists and kicks everywhere. In the head, the legs, the back, the stomach. Tobias just laughed insanely and continued his beating.

A second later, Eileen, who had been awakened by all the screaming, appeared in the doorway, and the shock was painted in her face. "TOBIAS, PLEASE STOP IT!"

But no matter how much she begged him to stop, she spoke for deaf ears. Eileen had no other choice, so she drew her wand from her nightgown and pointed it at Tobias.

"Immobulus!"

The faint-purple ray flew ahead and hit Tobias directly in the back. He froze just before hurling his fist at Isolde's head, and fell forth to land directly on his nose, which broke with a nasty sound upon the contact with the floor. Eileen ran over and helped her bruised daughter to her feet. The poor girl had got several blue marks on her arms, a few on her neck and legs, and one by her right temple. The sight broke the mother's heart, as she stroked the side of Isolde's face carefully.

"I won't expose you to this anymore, Nola. We are leaving tonight." Eileen said, and quickly found forth Isolde's trunk. "Please get ready."

While Eileen left to get something important, Isolde brought her few belongings and few amounts of Muggle clothes from the wardrobe and into the trunk, before closing and locking it with the associated padlocks, which had been lying inside the trunk. Then she quickly got on her shoes and dark-brown coat, which was too big for her and with the sleeves almost covering her hands. Her mind was still in shock after what just occurred, and the pain her body felt was bad, but the thought about finally getting away overshadowed it. Eileen returned a minute later, wearing slippers and her dark coat, but the right pocket bulged oddly. Eileen hurried over, and placed herself next to her daughter.

"Okay Isolde, listen to me. We are going to Side-Along Apparate to the Leaky Cauldron, but it might feel awful since you haven't tried it before. I want you to hold on as tightly as you can to my arm and your trunk." Eileen instructed, and hooked her arm with Isolde's. "I'll count to three… one… two..."

Isolde tightened her grip as much as possible, and held so hard around the handle of her trunk, that her knuckles almost turned white. she completely ignored her paralysed father on the floor, but felt the anxiety quickly building up. What was this Apparation? Was it dangerous?

"… Three!"

The next thing she knew was that everything went black. It felt like being pressed very hard from all directions. Her breath was stuck in her lungs, it was like there were iron bands tightening around her chest. Her eyeballs were being forced back into her head, and the eardrums being pushed deeper into her skull. It was awful, like being forced through a very tight rubber tube, but all of a sudden it was over. They had solid ground back under their feet. Isolde felt nauseous, but forced herself to keep it back. She looked up, and saw that they were standing before a door into what seemed to be a broken-down old shop. Eileen opened the door, which Isolde had thought would be locked or barricaded. Pulling the trunk along, she followed her mother and entered a bar area with table and chairs, and a bar in the other end of the room. A doorway led into a large dining room, and a stair led upstairs to the rooms available for renting.

"Tom!" Eileen called out, and closed the door and guided Isolde longer inside. "Tom, where are you?"

"Yes, yes, easy now…" a man's voice sounded.

The two women turned their heads, and saw man enter the bar from a backroom. He was chubby and seemed to be middle-aged, with balding brown hair, a large nose and brushy eyebrows. The man saw them and lit up a warm and welcoming smile, showing a gap between his front teeth, and began walking over to them.

"But if that isn't Eileen. How are you? I haven't seen you in…" he stopped and the smile faded, when he saw the bruised girl by his friend's side.

"Tom, this is Isolde. She's my daughter." Eileen said and continued, before Tom had a chance to speak. "Is there a place, where we can speak?"

Tom looked worried by how serious she sounded, but nodded and guided them inside the backroom he came from. There was nothing but a table with four chairs, a fireplace, which was lit up, and a large half-filled wine case in the corner. Once inside and with the door closed, they all sat down by the table.

"What can I do for you, Eileen?" Tom asked calm.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you in this late hour, but this is very important." She said, her voice was slightly quivering.

"I'm listening." Tom said and nodded for her to continue. "Is it about Tobias again?"

Eileen nodded, and took one of Isolde's hands in hers, still looking at the landlord but began explaining. "Tom, Isolde received her Hogwarts letter yesterday morning, and Tobias found out. He got furious and locked her inside her room, before leaving. He returned tonight, drunk as ever before, and attacked Isolde and began beating her. I had to immobilise him to get her away."

"My God," Tom looked shocked at the young girl. "Are you alright, my friend?"

Isolde slowly nodded, but kept her eyes at some point by Tom's hands. Eileen gently squeezed her hand, before continuing.

"Tom, Tobias' abuse has lasted long enough, and I can't get myself to expose Isolde to it anymore. I've come to ask a deep favour of you." Eileen said. "She's starting at Hogwarts the 1st September, but she won't be safe at home, especially not after I used magic to paralyse Tobias. He will only be more unpredictable now, and I won't risk that he takes it out on Isolde again."

"What can I do?" Tom asked.

"I want to ask, if Isolde can live here at the Leaky Cauldron with you and Alice? I know it's much to ask about this late, but she needs a safe place to return to at the school vacations, and it's simply too dangerous for Isolde to live at home." Eileen said and looked begging at Tom, who nodded.

"Our door is always open. Isolde can stay here as long as she desires." He said and smiled. "For free, of course."

Eileen smiled relieved, but felt a tug in her hand and turned to look into Isolde's dark eyes, there were wide open. "But mum, I…"

"Isolde, you must understand that I love you too much to see you being hurt like this by Tobias. Until now I've been so slow to realize, what pain you already have gone through." Eileen said guilty, and placed a hand on her daughter's cheek. "I want you to stay here, where you are safe. I promise to visit and write you as often as I can. By the way, this if for you…"

She reached into the bulging pocket, and took up a small bag, which she placed in Isolde's hands. The content clinked and when Isolde opened the bag, she saw it was filled almost to the edge with money. Isolde was astonished, never had she seen so much money.

"There are both wizard currency, and Muggle money to change if you should need it. It's not much, but it should be enough to buy your school equipment for now. Buy your wand as the first, it's the most expensive." Eileen said and stood up, and so did Tom and Isolde, there placed the money on the table and wrapped her arms around her mother's thin frame. Eileen held her tight, swaying a little from side to side, while kissing her on the hair over and over again. After a minute or two, they broke the embrace and looked at each other, holding each other's hands.

"Be a good girl to Tom and Alice, and do as they say." Tears started running down Eileen's cheeks. "I love you so much, Nola. Always remember that."

"I love you too, mum." Isolde's own tears now broke free as well. "Please be careful."

Eileen smiled warmly and began stepping backwards, holding on to Isolde's hands as long as possible. Tom walked around the table, and carefully laid a big hand on Isolde's shoulder, just as her mother's hands slipped out of hers. Eileen stepped back a little more before stopping, still smiling.

"Remember, it's not goodbye, it's see you later." Eileen shared a last look with her daughter, before disapparating back to Spinner's End.

* * *

**As I mentioned in the story, I would explain why I had chosen to place Spinner's End in Northern Manchester, London: **

**1.****I don't think that Spinner's End is not closely attached to any big city, but** if Spinner's End is in or very near to a city in England then Manchester is the most likely location, as it is actually known as "the town of tall chimneys". In the book, a tall chimney is described to be close to Snape's home.

**2. J.K Rowling has said, that she is a big fan of L.S. Lowry and his paintings, which are mainly of the Salford/Manchester Area. It's most likely that her image of Spinner's End was inspired by his paintings.  
**

**3. Snape's words and actions are those of one from the industrial north of England. Snape uses the expression "dunderhead," which is quite often heard in the north of England but rare elsewhere, and he describes Mundungus Fletcher as "smelly" — a word common among children all over Britain, but rarely used by adults — unless they are from the Manchester/Derby area. Finally, the fact that Snape probably comes from the industrial north of England defuses a lot of his apparent harshness and nastiness, because it means much of it is just cultural. In that area "surly and antisocial" is rather admired, and rudeness (known as "being blunt") is regarded as a sign of honesty and is cultivated as a virtue. Indeed, one can say that Snape's probably from a northern English industrial area, precisely because he is so brusque and sarcastic.  
**


	5. Hogwarts is Calling

Eileen had only visited a few times during the last two weeks, and by each visit, she looked terribly bruised. Tobias had got more violent, and tried to get her to reveal where Isolde was, but so far, she had not said a thing. Unfortunately, her stubbornness only resulted in Tobias beating the life out of her. It frustrated Isolde, that she couldn't do anything to help her mother.

The 1st September got closer, and Isolde still had to buy the rest of her school equipment. Since arriving at the Leaky Cauldron, she had only left a couple of times to look around the place, but used most of her time in her room, using the undisturbed solemness to read ahead in her schoolbooks.

Tom and Alice were worried. They thought the young girl's absence was caused by the shock of seeing her mother bruised, and then by suddenly being forced to live in another place than home and nothing was as it used to be. It had taken Isolde some time, before starting to trust the old couple. They had tried to initiate her in the various daily things happening in the Leaky Cauldron, like helping other first years to Diagon Ally or helping Alice with the shopping. Isolde did so, but never did she seem happy.

It was the day before leaving for Hogwarts, and Isolde still really hadn't bought all her equipment. She still missed buying her wand and school robes. Worried that she might forget all of it, Alice had decided to use some hours with Isolde to buy the rest. It was early afternoon, when Alice knocked on Isolde's room door.

Isolde looked up from her Potions book. "Come in."

She saw Alice opening the door, and entering the room. Alice was a really sweet woman, around the same age as her husband. Just as chubby, and with thin brown hair collected in a messy bun in her neck. She looked like a real grandmother type. She wore a thin black robe over her grey-black-white tartan dress and long white hip apron. Tom and Alice was a weird couple. Their facial features were very alike, same big nose, warm grey-blue eyes and thin brown hair. They also shared the same interest for collecting Muggle watches, mostly discarded, which Tom then showed off in a showcase on top of the shelves behind the bar.

"Hello Isolde, what are you doing?" Alice asked.

"Just reading my Potions book. I want to be as prepared as I can for my first school year." Isolde replied. "Is there anything I can help with?"

Alice smiled and closed the door, before going over to sit down in the other chair by Isolde's desk. "Sweetie, I know you have heard this many times before. But if you want to be prepared, then you should perhaps considering buying the rest of your school equipment soon, before you leave for Hogwarts."

Isolde nodded, a bit annoyed. Eileen, Tom and Alice had told her to enter Diagon Ally to buy the rest for school, but she kind of postponed it every time. Saying that it would be done the same day, but it always got delayed and replaced by studying. Alice noticed the girl's eyes were returning to the book, but before succeeding, Alice reached over and closed the book.

"But I'm not done with the chapter, Alice." Isolde objected.

"I know, but you can finish it later. I promised your mother and Tom, that I would help you buy your school equipment. So please take on your shoes and coat." Alice said in that kind of tone, where no questions should be asked.

Isolde looked at her for a moment, but then nodded. Ten minutes later, they were walking downstairs. Isolde wore worn jeans, a dark-green t-shirt, worn runners and her grey coat. She had borrowed a medium-large shoulder bag from Tom, so she had something to carry her money and the rest of the school equipment. Tom was busy with expedite customers in the bar, so Alice and Isolde went straight past and out into the small, walled courtyard and the wall of stone, which was the entrance to Diagon Ally. Isolde knew the access pattern very well, after having helped elders and families with other first years through a couple of times, but only to show them the pattern. Access demanded a wand, which she didn't have yet, and besides, using magic outside Hogwarts was illegal to minors. Alice found forth her wand, an ultra-short one, barely the length of her own hand, and of grey-brown wood. From the trash can, she tapped three stones up and two stones across. The tapped stones started moving, and forced a small hole which quickly formed a large archway. The street beyond was packed with wizards and witches of all ages, most of them families helping their children with buying school equipment for their first year. Isolde had only been in the ally a few times, but already knew the way to all the various locations the ally could offer.

"Let's go and buy your wand first, since it maybe will be the most expensive." Alice said, and laid a hand on Isolde's shoulder.

Isolde nodded and they walked ahead, now and then forced to make their way through the crowds, but finally came to Ollivander's Wand Shop. Despite the crowds of people outside, the shop itself was deserted.

"I'll wait out here." Alice smiled, and sat down on a old chair next to the door.

Isolde nodded again and entered the shop, and heard the small clock above the door ring, when the door hit it when opening and closing. Almost as expected, Ollivander was not present by the counter, but probably somewhere between the ceiling-tall rows of shelves behind it. Isolde walked forth with long steps, and firmly rung the counter bell, while dropping her bag onto the floor.

"Mr Ollivander? I know you're here somewhere." Isolde called.

There sounded a _swoosh_ as a ladder on squeaking wheels rolled along the floor, and she looked up to see a fair man with messy white hair and sideburns standing on the top of the ladder. He made a smirk-like smile upon seeing her.

"I knew I would see you sooner or later, Ms Snape." He said, while stepping down the ladder and over to a row of shelves near the counter, already searching for the perfect wand. Isolde watched him, finding it a bit strange that he didn't use his magical tape measure like by every other first-time customer. Maybe because of her being a Snape, her wand would be similar to her brother's, and thus not a difficult challenge.

He returned some seconds later with a long black box, which he opened and handed the black wand to her. "This wand is very similar to your brother's. Let us see, if it's the right."

Isolde was soon tired of being compared to her brother, but closed her right hand around the handle. She felt no difference, but flicked it at a random point. There sounded a loud crash, when a showcase of glass with wands on pillows by the wall exploded.

"Apparently not like your brother's…" Ollivander said slowly, realizing that a challenge was ahead anyway.

The challenge should appear to be more difficult than expected. Not even after almost fifteen minutes was the right wand chosen. Isolde briefly thought, that she would attend Hogwarts without a wand.

"Difficult customer, I see…" Ollivander mumbled low, while going over to a cupboard, there was locked in front with a small padlock. Unlocking it and opening the small doors wide, his eyes moved up and down the few boxes inside, and then his hands picked a dusty beige one from the middle. His hands held it, while a thoughtful yet dark expression came over his face. "I wonder…"

Returning to the counter, he opened the box and swept the red velvet paper aside, before picking out the wand. It was quite long, made of red-brownish wood. A thin and plain copper ring was encircling the bottom edge and another around the top of the handle, while a thin golden thread twisted its way all way down the middle. It was a very pretty wand. Ollivander seemed to hesitate a little, but slowly handed it to Isolde. She looked at him, but slowly closed her fingers around the handle. As soon as her skin touched the handle, the furious warmth shooting through her almost made her drop the wand. The four candlelights on the counter also got blown out. Ollivander's eyes moved in their sockets, and he seemed almost… restless.

"Curious… very curious…" He said.

"How so?" Isolde asked a bit carefully.

Ollivander gently took the wand from her hands. "You see, I remember every single wand I've ever sold, Ms Snape. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand, when it's so different from the wand owned by your brother. Your brother's was strong; 13", made of ebony, and core of dragon heartstring. This wand in my hands, is also 13" but made of blackthorn with a core of unicorn hair. Within the procession of wandlore, it is said that wands with cores of unicorn hair is the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. But it's also said, that wands made of blackthorn only truly bonds with their owner through danger or hardship, and are meant to be destined for warriors."

"But… I'm no warrior." Isolde said, now almost a bit unsure herself. "Can the wand… maybe have chosen wrong?"

"A wand never chooses wrong, my dear." Ollivander's eyes were fixed at her. "It's the wand who chooses the wizard, not the wizard who chooses the wand. It's not always clear why. But I think it is clear, that the wand sees potential in you, my young friend. I'm sure that you will be able to control this kind of powerful wand. Many great and famous Aurors have had wands made of blackthorn. Maybe you will join them, when becoming of age."

Isolde wasn't quite sure what an Auror was or did, but it sounded like they were powerful. She paid a staggering 10 Galleons for her wand, before leaving the shop, feel quite poor, but was surprised to see Alice waiting outside with a large vanilla ice cream for her. Isolde asked if Alice shouldn't have one herself, but the older woman said that her stomach wouldn't feel good if eating one. While consuming the ice cream, they continued through the ally, there was slightly more packed than earlier. Isolde didn't tell Alice, when happened inside Ollivander's. After buying all her robes at a reasonable price at Madam Malkin's, they planned to return to the Leaky Cauldron. But there missed one thing. In her Hogwarts letter, it was written that it was allowed to bring a rat, a cat or an owl. Isolde had always wanted a cat, and Alice had surprised her by saying, that Isolde could choose any cat or pet she wanted and see it like a delayed birthday gift.

They made their way to the Magical Menagerie, and entered the shop. Every inch of the walls were covered in cages containing various species of animals, there among poisonous orange snails, a giant jewel-encrusted tortoise, which walked freely around the shop, sleek black rats of supposed high intelligence, owls of all species, ravens, cats in every colour of the rainbow, Puffskeins, which best could be described as small round living hairballs. There was also a fat white rabbit with the ability to transform into a silk top hat at will.

There stood a skinny woman with short black hair behind the counter, and struggled with keeping what seemed to be two cockroaches the sizes of American footballs inside their cage. After a tough fight, the saleswoman finally got the cage locked. But the cockroaches moved so furiously, that the whole cage almost moved across the counter. But the woman threw a dark blanket over it, which seemed to calm all activity underneath.

The woman looked triumphing from the cage to the customers. "Sorry, just some cockroaches from Russia. They are always that big when arriving. Now, what can I do for you?"

"I actually need your advice for something…" Alice replied, and went over to continue the conversation with the saleswoman. "Isolde, you can just take a round in the shop, and see if you can find a pet."

While the two women talked, Isolde walked around the shop. After some minutes, she saw a cage standing on a table in a lonely corner between empty food containers. Curiously, she went over and looked inside. There was a cat in there, and a odd one. Its whole body was covered in a pattern of wonderful, bright and intense colours; cream, black, orange and white all mixed together in a messy but beautiful pattern. The mouth and area around was snow-white, and the nose itself was soft-pink. But the most captivating was the cat's striking green almond-shaped eyes.

"Hey pretty, what sort of cat are you?" it was there, she noticed a note sticking to the top of the cage.

_'Oriental Shorthair – Muggle breed – female. Colour - Tortoiseshell/Tri-colour – Price: 12 Galleons.'_

Slowly Isolde unlocked and opened the cage, so she could let her hand approach the cat, there watched her. "Hey kitty…"

The cat eyed her, but slowly leant forth to sniff at her fingers. It was a bit hesitating at first, but then seemed to open op. It actually ran its head sideways down her hand twice, before leaning into her palm, purring in a cuddly way like telling her to repay the stroking. Isolde smiled, and gently began stroking the coloured fur, which felt softer than it looked. Someone once said that you can feel it, when you have found the right one. Isolde felt this as soon as her hand touched the cat. Bringing her other hand inside the cage, she carefully lifted out the cat and held it in her arms. It was not heavy at all, but light. Like other Oriental Shorthairs, the bodies are very elegant yet muscular built. Its head had a funny wedge-shape form, while its almost bat-similar ears were large and fit in the wedges of the head. The tail was almost as long as its body from neck to end.

"Alice?"

The older woman turned her head, and saw Isolde standing there next to her with the cat in her arms, a happy smile on her face. "I've found my cat. Isn't she just a beauty?"

Alice smiled. "She surely is. How much does it cost?"

Isolde's smile faded a little, before saying the price a bit hushed. "12 Galleons. But you don't have to pay it all, I can pay the most of it…"

"Nonsense." Alice cut her off. "I said that it was a delayed birthday gift, which means that the price is not a problem."

Isolde watched with large eyes, how Alice paid for the pet, cat food and a carrier to transport of the cat. It felt awkward, that someone spent so much money in Isolde's interest.

"It was also about time, that she found a home." The owner said, while giving Alice her change. "Everyone was always of the same opinion; that it looked weird and didn't want to own it."

"But I love her," Isolde stated and gently hugged the cat, which seemed to be half-asleep in the girl's protective arms. "I want to call her… Nola."

* * *

The sun was shining brightly at this the 1st September 1987. It was time to go to Hogwarts, and Tom had driven Isolde to King's Cross to help her get the train in time.

"Are you now sure, that I not shall go with you to the platform? You can easily get lost with all those Muggles around. Do you have everything? And do you have your ticket for the school train?" Tom asked again, after helping Isolde getting her luggage from the car and onto a cart. Her luggage only consisted of two trunks; her large Hogwarts trunk with schoolbooks, clothes, uniforms and robes, and a similar-sized trunk where her cauldron, a Collapsible Cauldron which used lesser space, her telescope, her set of glass phials, and the set of brass scales, which without doubt weighed the most. Nola was safely locked inside her round wicker cat carrier, and watched attentively out of the metal lattice.

"Yes Tom, I have everything. The ticket is in my inner pocket, which is zipped. My mother explained how to get to the platform, and promised to meet me by the train." Isolde replied. "But thanks anyway, Tom. I'm going to miss you and Alice."

"We will also miss you." Tom smiled at her. "Are you nervous?"

Isolde shrugged. "Not really. A little bit, but I'm more nervous about facing my brother again. We haven't seen each other for five years. He hasn't maintained the contact, not even written or something. A part of me fear, that he won't recognize me."

"Of course he will, don't worry." Tom chuckled and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Now, off you go. Have a nice trip, and say hello to Hagrid for me, when you see him."

Isolde nodded smiling, and began pushing her luggage cart into the station building. The station was so full of people, that she got stuck a few times. She managed to find the right platform, there lead to platform 9 and 10, and then headed for the column, there gave access to platform 9¾. The columns were counted along the way, so she didn't risk missing it. The magical one was almost halfway down. There hung an apparently solid metal ticket box on the wall. She stood for a while, and wondered how to get through. Eileen had explained how, but Isolde couldn't remember it. Her eyes caught the clock hanging in the top of the column, and her face paled. The train would be gone in ten minutes. She looked behind and to both sides to see, if someone else with heavy loaded luggage carts and animals in cages came in the same direction, but there were no one to be seen. Then she felt a hand touch her back and quickly guiding her forth towards the column.

"Just keep going, Isolde." a well-known voice said.

Isolde's feet kept going, and she held her breath as she thought her cart would collide with the wall, but was shocked to see that the cart, her and the person went directly through the wall, and walked briefly in a dark tunnel, before appearing onto the other side. A large majestic black and red train with bright red passenger carriages held and waited for the rest to get on. The white steam lay as a mist over the platform, and almost got the people to disappear. First now Isolde turned her head, and saw who there had helped her forth. The long shallow face was framed by the long black and lifeless hair, yet the pale skin didn't look bruised this time.

"Mum?"

"Hurry now or you won't get on in time." Eileen sounded a bit weird, but quickly led her daughter over to the train, where the passenger carriages were full of children and young people, who all were literally hanging out of the windows to say goodbye to their families.

They managed to find an empty compartment almost halfway down. Isolde jumped into the train and inside the compartment, where she opened the window wide to get her luggage, which Eileen lifted up to her. After shoving the trunks onto the luggage shelves, Nola was placed on the seat, and Isolde returned to the window, hanging out of it like the others to say goodbye to her mother. But then the train doors slammed shut all way down the carriages, and the horn sounded.

"But mum, I haven't said goodbye to you." Isolde said fast.

"It's okay. The most important is that you made it." Eileen smiled and reached up to stroke her cheek. "Have a really nice trip, and remember that Severus will take care of you."

Before Isolde had a chance to reply, the train started rolling ahead and out of the platform. She kept looking at her mother as long as possible, until Eileen disappeared in the white mist of steam. Slowly Isolde stepped back into the compartment, and closed the window. Nola meowed inside her carrier, and Isolde sat down and let her out. The cat stepped onto her lap and lay down, yawned and fell asleep. While subconsciously stroking the cat, Isolde looked out of the window with a faraway look in her eyes, watching how the train made it to the countryside after some time.

Hogwarts waited for her.


	6. A Magical Welcome

It was early evening, when the train slowed down to stop by Hogsmeade Station. Isolde looked excited around from her window, noticing that they were in a large forest area. Maybe it was the edges of the Forbidden Forest, which was mentioned in her _"Hogwarts, A History"_ book. She had used most of the travelling time to read a little more in her books, practising the Shrinking charm _Reducio_ and its counter charm, _Engorgement_. Two charms, which she, after own opinion, now mastered very well. An older student also passed by earlier, and recommended her to change into her school uniform. Isolde was not keen to change clothes in a compartment, where everyone could burst in or use Alohomora on a locked door. To her relief, no one did and she quickly changed.

The female Hogwarts uniform consisted of a plain white buttoned shirt, a house tie, which right now was black with the Hogwarts crest on, a thick grey knitted v-neck jumper, where the necklace would change into the colour of the chosen house, a pleated skirt ending just by the knees, plain black shoes, and grey knee-length socks. The robes bought together with the uniform were open and black, and could be tied with strings by the collar. The school crest was sewn onto the left side of the robe, just by the chest.

The Hogwarts Express rolled into the platform and stopped gently. When holding completely still, Isolde stepped into the corridor and was almost pushed along by the other students. It was weird, that they shouldn't bring their luggage along, but just let it stay in the train. An older student stood by the exit door, saying that the luggage would be brought up to Hogwarts. Some other students held the train doors, so the younger students could get out. Isolde jumped out and onto the platform, where a very tall man, at least 12 feet in height, called the first-years to follow with him. Some of the other students called the tall man for Hagrid.

With the trail of first-years in his footsteps, this Hagrid walked to the other end of the platform, where he guided them all down a shady path, there led to the shore of a large body of water, where a fleet of small boats waited to transport them over. Across the lake, built on a hall hovering above the water, was a large castle, which seemed centuries old. It was at least seven-stories high, and with many towers and turrets. The building was very likely supported by magic. The Forbidden Forest extended all way around to the west of the castle. It was obvious that they were in the Scottish Highlands, as surrounding mountains and forests were parts of the landscape.

"No more than four in one boat!" Hagrid instructed as he helped the gaping students into the boats, and handed them a long stick with a lamp. Isolde got into a boat with three other girls, there had to be identical triplets, since they had same facial features, baby-blue eyes and waist-length blonde hair. Making them look like younger versions of Barbie. Isolde was relieved, that she hadn't blonde hair. It wouldn't fit her anyway.

While sitting in front of the boat, holding the lamp, she looked at the castle with awe. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry looked even more majestic than in the book. A few moments later, the boats began sailing themselves across the water surface and towards the school. The triplets began talking non-stop, about beauty, magic and something called Veelas. Isolde was already really tired of them, and found it overwhelmingly tempting to just throw them off board, and hope that the Giant Squid would eat them.

The boats sailed into a small boathouse, and disappeared down into the water, as the students got out of them and onto firm ground. Hagrid led them out of the boathouse and walked in front, as they all went up a very long stone stair, which was lit up by ever-burning torches and twisted its way up the hill to the castle. They came up to a courtyard, which had a covered stone cloister with an open colonnade running around it, but they continued past it and down a viaduct, also illuminated by torches, there crossed a very deep cliff. The huge door in the end swung open at once, and on top of the stairs stood a tall witch in emerald-green robes, waiting for them. When Isolde got closer, she got a closer look of the woman. She was at least sixty years old, had a very stern face, and her thin black hair was tightly collected into a bun in her neck, while a black pointed hat sat cocked to the one side on her head.

"I have the firs' years for ya, Professor McGonagall." Hagrid said.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I'll take over from here." Professor McGonagall said with a dismissing nod. Hagrid smiled at the young students, before walking past the witch and into the corridor behind. The sound of his massive footsteps could still be heard several seconds later.

Isolde stood in second row by the top steps, in front of the annoying triplets, as the professor began talking.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said McGonagall with a firm voice. "The start-of-term feast will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be like your family. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room together with your dorm mates. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs and good behaviour will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will made your house lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours… The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all straighten yourselves a bit, while you are waiting."

The blonde triplets instantly began flatten their hair, and remove loose hairs from each other's robes. Isolde rolled her eyes, but then saw that McGonagall's eyes rested on her. They shared eye-contact for a awkward moment, before McGonagall turned to look at the others.

"I will return when we are ready for you," McGonagall said. "Please wait here quietly."

With that the older witch left them. Isolde wondered why McGonagall's glare had been so studying. Maybe she wanted to be sure, before going to tell Severus of his little sister's arrival. Or perhaps, she thought Isolde looked like something the cat had dragged in. Tobias often said the same; criticising and calling her nasty and humiliating things, the "nicest" was probably when he called her a very ugly duckling. All this had a rather negative effect on Isolde's already low self-esteem.

McGonagall returned some minutes later with a scroll in her hands. "We are ready to see you. Please follow me."

Isolde followed together the others, as McGonagall led them through several corridors and up and down several stairs. Eventually they came to a large pair of oak double doors, which swung open and let them enter the Great Hall. Inside were five tables. Four of them were occupied only by students, and were standing vertically along the stone floor. A fifth table, occupied by the teachers, stood horizontally in the other end of the hall on a slightly levelled platform, making the professors have a good view over the rest of the room. The four student tables glittered due to an innumerable amount of golden plates and drinking goblets. Above the students' heads were thousands, if not millions, of tiny bewitched candles, which flew freely in the air and gave the illusion of the night sky. Isolde leant her head back, and saw a black velvety ceiling dotted with stars. For a minute Isolde thought there wasn't a ceiling at all, and the Great Hall instead opened up to the heavens. But then she remembered, that the ceiling was bewitched to look like the sky outside.

The first years were led up the passage between the two middle tables, and up to a spot near the staff table. While they gathered around, McGonagall placed a stool before them and sat an old, stitched up hat on it. Everyone stared at it expectantly in awe. The hat moved, then a rip opened above the brim, and the hat began to sing, the older students by the tables singing along. The song sounded like total nonsense, so Isolde faked singing along while discreetly looking around. Her eyes froze upon finding the face of a certain teacher sitting by the far right side of the table.

Her brother hadn't changed as much as she had expected. He was a thin man, having their father's hooked nose, and shoulder-length black hair, which framed his sallow face in greasy curtains. His face shape was long and similar to their mother's. Many would say that the two siblings looked nothing like each other. The only thing there could _relate_ the siblings were their dark eyes. Where Severus' eyes were close to be black, penetrating and resembled tunnels, Isolde's were more a very dark chocolate-brown and had a twinkle in them. The two siblings were now looking at each other for the first time in over five years.

Isolde was so captivated by seeing her brother again, that she didn't hear the hat stopping its singing, and first returned to reality when hundreds of clapping hands sounded. Quickly she joined the applause, while looking at the other first-years, but no one seemed to have noticed her staring at the man by the staff table. Once the many hands were held still again, McGonagall stepped up next to the stool and unrolled the scroll in her hands.

"When your name is called, I will say your last name first, you will come up here and sit on the stool. I'll put the sorting hat on your head," she pointed it out by lifting the hat from the stool. "And then the hat will sort you into a house."

She took a look on the scroll. "Abelson, Thomas."

A tall boy, whose face looked like a gorilla's with golden hair in a classic pot haircut, stepped forth from the back and sat down on the stool. McGonagall placed the hat onto his head, and the hat began thinking.

"Hmm, let's see… well okay, HUFFLEPUFF!"

McGonagall took off the hat, and the boy walked down and sat down by the Hufflepuff table. The next name called was the last name Alder, and the triplets pushed their way up to stand in front. The sorting hat didn't look amused by the view to sort the triplets. By the name Ella, the triplet to the right went up. Isolde notice, that she was taller than her sisters. The hat sorted her into Ravenclaw, and she went over to sit by the house table. The middle twin named Emily was next, and was also sorted into Ravenclaw. Then the last triplet, Emma, was called. The anxious girl went up, but used several seconds more in the stool than her two sisters, but as expected the hat sorted her into Ravenclaw. The last triplet ran down and the three sisters happily hugged each other, before sitting down next to each other on the bench.

More and more first-years got sorted, and left the gathering. Isolde felt her heart pounding in her chest and almost stop, when the inevitable of her being next came.

"Snape, Isolde." McGonagall called.

Whisper instantly broke out among the older students, especially by the Slytherin table. Isolde swallowed nervously, but slowly stepped up in front. Her heart was pounding so hard, that she thought it might cause a heart attack. Her palms were sweaty, as she sat onto the stool. She saw to her discomfort, that practically everyone in the whole room was staring at her. Snape was also watching and didn't blink once. Her hands closed tightly around the round edges, as McGonagall placed the hat onto her head and stepped back. The rip above the brim opened again, and spoke so everyone in the Great Hall could hear it.

"Hmm… difficult, very difficult… plenty of courage and stubbornness, I see, and certainly not a bad mind either. You are independent, mature and skilled beyond your years. Three qualities I _rarely_ see together in one mind alone. There is talent, oh yes, and a deep thirst… to prove yourself. Your brother is the Head of the Slytherin dorm, and you possess all the qualities to become an excellent Slytherin. Yet your courage and sharp mind are also qualities of a Gryffindor…" the hat sounded like to be in quite a dilemma. "You can be great in both houses, you know. It's all here in your head. And both Slytherin and Gryffindor will help you on the way to greatness, there's no doubt about that. But since we can't have a _hatstall, _then I have to say…"

Isolde held her breath, and almost felt her heart sink as a stone, when the sorting hat shouted out its result. "... GRYFFINDOR!"

Gryffindor? But she wanted to be in Slytherin! Isolde was happy of course, but also disappointed over not being in the same house as her brother. Oh well, at least she was sorted now and belonged somewhere. McGonagall had a weird smile almost like a mix of surprise and triumph, as she removed the sorting hat from Isolde's head. The young girl leapt down from the stool, and glanced back at her brother with a smile. He didn't return the smile at all, but looked rather disappointed. Isolde's own smile faded, and silently she went down to sit by her house table. No one really talked to her, so she just stared into her golden plate like trying to stare a hole through it. About ten minutes later, the rest of the first-years were sorted and seated, and the chat had returned among the tables. It was first when McGonagall tapped the side of her glass with a fork, that it stopped again.

"Your attention, please." McGonagall said.

The old wizard, who had been sitting to her left in a throne-like chair, stood up. He was very old, wore half-moon spectacles over his brilliant blue eyes, and his white-silver hair and beard were so long, that it could be tucked into his belt. His robes were colourful and ranged from purple to crimson-red. Due to how centred by the table he sat, he must be a very important person of the staff. Maybe even the headmaster.

"It's always so nice… to see new faces in our school," his voice was calm, collected and pleasant to listen to. "I think a little modest introduction of myself would be in order. I'm Albus Dumbledore, and I have the honour to be the headmaster of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'm excited to see you all develop as individuals, and hopefully learn something during these seven years. By that I think I already have said enough. It would be sad to delay… our feast."

Seconds after ended sentence, a unanimously 'wow' sounded in the Great Hall, as the tables out of nowhere got filled with delicious food of all kinds. Roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops, lamb chops, sausages, bacon, steak, and much, much more. Isolde had never seen so much food in one place, and her stomach gave a roar of hunger. She hadn't been eating anything during the trip to Hogwarts, mostly in a try to save the few remaining money. Eagerly taking something from each plate, she began eating and tried to ignore the whole table still whispered things about her. Even the Alder triplets by the Ravenclaw table, which stood closest to the wall and before the Gryffindor table, whispered things and looked oddly at her.

After some time, the food on the serving plates got replaced by all the desserts a heart could desire. There were blocks of assorted ice cream, apple pies, treacle tarts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, and rice pudding. Isolde reached over to get some pistachio ice cream, but uttered a yelp and nearly fell off the bench, when a ghost head suddenly appeared up through the big bowl with strawberries.

"Hello everyone, and welcome to Gryffindor!" the ghost greeted in an airy and delicate voice. "It's always so nice to see new faces among us. I don't think I've introduced myself? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. I'm the resident ghost of the Gryffindor Tower. You can all just call me Sir Nicholas."

The ghost grinned, as it floated up through the table and plates. He had long curly hair, a small moustache and a goatee. His whole body was pearly-white and slightly transparent. He wore a royal Medieval-like outfit, which consisted of tights, a pair of breeches, a doublet, and a cape. A ruff was wrapped around his neck.

Isolde followed the ghost with the eyes, and saw that at least ten other ghosts, all just as pearly-white and transparent, also were present, and flew around. Yet most of them disappeared through the walls, until four were remaining. The House Ghosts. Besides Sir Nicholas, there was a small and fat monk-like ghost, which was known as the Fat Friar and belonged to the house of Hufflepuff. A ghost dressed almost like a pirate and with a big powdered wig, strolled casually along the Slytherin table, using his sword as a walking stick. He was known as the Bloody Baron. The fourth ghost was the only female ghost. It was the ghost of Ravenclaw, Helena Ravenclaw. She was a tall ghost, and had waist-length hair. Her floor-length dress seemed to be from the Victorian Era. Isolde thought the female ghost looked beautiful, though she also looked proud and haughty.

The House Ghosts used the remaining time to either sit or float by their house table, and eye the new students in their houses. Some time passed, before the desserts, plates and goblets, also though the students were about to drink of them, disappeared, and left the tables all empty. Again McGonagall tapped her glass and got the students' attention. The headmaster rose from his chair again, and smiled kindly.

"I hope you all have enjoyed this modest start-of-term feast. We have worked hard to make your arrival as comfortable and welcoming as possible." He said. "Now, you must all be tired after the trip with the Hogwarts Express. The Prefects will escort his or her house back to their dormitories. There is a list with the time of the meals, sleeping times, and other written Hogwarts rules on the bulletin board in your common rooms. I recommend you all to read it, though a little mischief never has hurt anyone…" this was said with a twinkle in the blue eyes. "With all this told, there is nothing left to say than… Welcome to Hogwarts."

Isolde left the Great Hall together with the rest of the students, and they all walked up a great marble stair, until they came to a mysterious room in the castle. Isolde gaped. The walls were covered in hundreds of moving Portraits, some conceal secret passages to other areas within the school, and the multiple staircases were also moving. They led from platform to platform of each floor, and went as high as the seventh floor where they came to an end. A single staircase led down to the base, from which you could enter the dungeons. It was known as the Grand Staircase.

"All Gryffindor students, follow me!" the male Gryffindor Prefect called. The name _William Weasley_ stood on his name tag. He was a 5th year student, quite tall and with flame-red hair and blue eyes. The female Prefect was named Anastasia Stirling, and had short black hair and grey eyes. She walked in the back to make sure no one was dropped.

Isolde followed the rest of her group, as the Prefects guided them up the moving stairs, which seemed to have a knack for moving around the staircase chamber, when someone was walking up or down one of them. They continued all way up to seventh and last floor, and continued down a side corridor, until coming to a portrait of a fat lady in a pink silk dress, which seemed way too small for her size.

"_Passwoooord_?" the woman cooed.

By this, the male Prefect turned around to the students. "Most of all the portraits in the castle want a password, before giving access to the house or corridor behind it. The password is different for each House and House Portrait, and is changed frequently. It's strictly forbidden to exchange the passwords between non-members of your house. The current password to the Gryffindor Tower, and remember it now, is _Chocolate Fudge_."

"And it's so delicious," the Fat Lady interjected. "Let me hear you all."

"Chocolate Fudge!" everyone said in unison.

"Beautiful, access giiiiiven…" the Fat Lady giggled and swung backwards to reveal a circular hole leading to the common room.

The male Prefect walked inside, and the students followed him. The common room was large and circular, and full of squashy armchairs, tables, two small couches, and a bulletin board, which stood by the entrance. The walls were decorated with scarlet tapestries, which depicted former Gryffindor witches and wizards, but also various animals where the lion was the most used. And if you entered, and looked directly to the right, you would find a large fireplace dominating the wall. A few windows around the room, one near the fireplace, looked out onto the school grounds. Isolde wondered, how the many students who sat by the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, all could be in this one room.

The Prefects walked up in front, and stood in front of the two spiral staircases, which were in the back of the room.

"These are the staircases, which lead to the Gryffindor dormitories. The left leads to all the seven boys dormitories; there is one for each year, and you begin in the bottom and 'work' your way up. It's the same principle with the right staircase, which leads to the girls'. You all will find that your luggage has been brought up." The male Prefect said, but then the female Prefect cut in.

"This is mainly meant a warning to the boys. The stairs to the girls' dormitory are enchanted to become a slide, if any boy attempts to climb them. But this is not the case when vice versa, since it's deemed that girls are more trustworthy than boys." The female Prefect said with a jaunty smile.

The Prefects led their part of the group up the right staircase, and into the first one of the dormitories. The rooms were also circular, a little smaller, and consisted of four large wooden four-poster beds with red and white linen, while a tall round fireplace stood in the middle of the room. The luggage already stood by a certain bed, indicating where the owner should sleep, and Isolde saw Nola lying on the bedspread on the second bed from the left. The empty carrier stood on the trunk, which was placed by the foot end of the bed. Isolde went over and gently stroked Nola's fur, but then heard one of the other girls talk to her.

"You are a Snape?" a tanned girl with short black hair asked.

"Yes," Isolde replied, and looked at the other three girls. "And before you all ask; yes, Professor Severus Snape _is_ my big brother. He _is_ Head of the Slytherin dorm. But I won't have you to compare me to him in any way, so please don't."

"It wasn't what I intended to do," the girl said calmly. "My brother graduated last year, and he meant that every Snape was destined to be in Slytherin. I just think it's cool, that we now have a Snape in Gryffindor instead."

The other girls nodded. Isolde looked at them with a slightly raised eyebrow, not completely buying it.

* * *

**(1) _Hatstall_ - a term used for a student at Hogwarts, whose sorting took more than five minutes. Often if the Sorting Hat found him or her to have a personality equally suited to two different Hogwarts Houses. True Hatstalls are rare, occurring around every fiftieth year, but near Hatstalls, taking between three to four minutes, may have been more common. In Isolde's case, she used four-and-a-half minute in stool, before being sorted.**

**(2) _Choosing of house_ - It was on purpose, that Isolde was sorted into Gryffindor. ****It would have been too easy to put her in the same house as her brother.** Though she may possess the qualities of a Slytherin, I thought it would be better to put her in the house, which her brother despises to add some tension. And as you may have red, Snape is already now not pleased with Isolde being a Gryffindor.  



	7. First Year First Contact Part I

**My plan is that Isolde's school years shall be in 2-3 chapters, but it will depend on the occasions happening. When Harry Potter starts at Hogwarts, the chapters might be a bit longer, I don't know yet. **

**Let the school years begin!  
**

* * *

It was some of a party, Isolde slept together with in the dormitory. Mariah Spencer was the tanned girl with short black hair, her bed was the second bed to the left. She had a Snowy Owl named Enigma. Claire Jones had green eyes and brown hair in a page hairstyle, and slept in the first bed to the left. Her pet was a toad named Houdini. Allison Stone, a girl with gigantic blue eyes and long blond hair, "owned" the first bed to the right. Her pet was a albino rat named Fiona, there had just as huge eyes as its owner. Finally there was Anna Smith, a shy girl with long red hair and blue eyes, and her bed was the second to the right. She was the only one, who didn't own a pet.

It was the first school day, and the early autumn sun began shining through the few windows. Nola stepped out of her carrier under the bed, stretched lazily, and then jumped up into the bed, where only the top part of Isolde's head was visible under the red bedspread. Nola stepped closer and curiously put her nose down to Isolde's face. Isolde felt the tiny blows of breath, and grimaced slightly when the white whiskers tickled her nose. She tried taking the bedspread over her head, but Nola kept finding her way in.

"Alright… alright, I'm up." Isolde said sleepy and sat up in the bed, rubbing her eyes with a hand. Nola leant cuddly against her arm, and Isolde stroked it while looking on the watch on her right wrist. It was close to be 7 in the morning, and the breakfast was from 7.30 to 8.30.

Still a bit sleepy, Isolde stepped out onto the floor, noticing that the other girls and their pets still were asleep. After using a minute to go around and wake them, she changed into her school uniform, collected her messy hair into a side-swept braid down her left shoulder, and put her wand into the inner pocket of her robes, before going downstairs into the common room. A few dying embers were still burning in the fireplace, but she went over to look at the bulletin board, where some new had been posted since yesterday.

Besides the list with the written Hogwarts rules, there was also a large map over the school and classrooms, and a weekly schedule meant for the first-years. All the schedules for each house were on, making it possible to see who to spend your first days with. The lessons began at 9 am, and lasted one hour each. She should have a double lesson of Transfiguration together with the Hufflepuffs as the first, with McGonagall as teacher. Then followed a lesson of Herbology by a Professor Sprout with the Slytherins. The lunch was from 12 to 0.30 pm, and after that followed a lesson of Charms by F. Flitwick with the Ravenclaws. The last two lessons were a double lesson of Potions, again with the Slytherins. This time with her brother as teacher.

After making sure that no one else was around, she quickly took both the map and the schedule down from the bulletin board, folded them together and put them into the pocket with her wand. There appeared two other copies out of nowhere seconds later, where the previous had been posted. Isolde leapt out of the common room and out of the portrait. The most of the portraits inside the Grand Staircase were also still asleep, sleeping peacefully in their frames. The Fat Lady snored terribly.

Isolde managed to get all the way down the many stairs without being teased by them moving around. There were already a few students inside the Great Hall. Three boys, who were sitting by the Slytherin table, and two older girls by the Hufflepuff table. The Slytherin students chatted low, but then one of them saw Isolde entering and fell silent. The other boys looked in the same direction, and they all three got some curt expressions on their faces. Isolde ignored their glares and sat down by the Gryffindor table. While waiting for the breakfast to start, she looked around and glanced up at the teachers' table. There was only one teacher present, a pale young man wearing a large purple turban on his head. His hands were collected before him, elbows on the armrests, and eyes lowered. It looked like he was either sleeping or meditating.

More students began entering the Great Hall, and soon everyone, including most of the teachers, had also arrived. The only one missing was Professor Snape. Isolde thought he maybe was preparing for the first morning lessons, and decided to eat in his rooms. After finishing her breakfast, Isolde put a can of tuna into her pocket, stood up and returned to the Gryffindor Tower. The Fat Lady was finally awake, but still looked quite groggy. Not sleepy-groggy, but more like hangover-groggy.

"Are you alright?" Isolde asked.

The Fat Lady hiccuped. "I'm fine, dear… just too much celebration sherry yesterday night…" a groan of complain could be heard, and her hand found her forehead like in a swooning pose. "Oh my poor head…"

"Chocolate Fudge." Isolde rolled her eyes, and went inside as the portrait swung back. The common room was empty. Jumping up the right spiral stair, she walked into her dormitory and found it empty as well.

"Nola, see what I have for you." Isolde said and removed the metal lid from the can, and placed it on the floor under the bed. Nola, who had been teasing Allison's albino rat, gladly ran over and began eating. Isolde smiled and opened her Hogwarts trunk to pack her books into her shoulder-bag.

**.:T:.**

Thanks to the map, Isolde easily found her way to the Transfiguration classroom, and was there several minutes before everyone else. When the clock tower struck 9, the door into the classroom got unlocked, and McGonagall, stern-faced like always, let them in. The classroom was big, surrounded by high windows, and there were three rows of four tables, each one for two persons. Several cages and bookshelves stood around the walls. In front was two chalkboards, and between them a desk for McGonagall.

"Okay everyone, find a seat and find forth your book. And no pushing, there is a seat for everyone" McGonagall said firmly, whiling walking up the middle passage to her desk.

Isolde sat down by the front table closest to the right wall, but had to share the table with another boy from Gryffindor. He was tall and thin for his age, had blue eyes, vivid red hair, large ears and tons of freckles. The boy looked very much like the male prefect in Gryffindor, actually so much that Isolde was convinced, that they had to be from the same family. She caught a glimpse of his name tag, which said _Percy Weasley_. His facial features seemed serious, if not a little sour, by nature. When everyone was seated, McGonagall began speaking.

"Welcome to your first lesson in Transfiguration. I'm Professor McGonagall, and I'm teaching Transfiguration here at Hogwarts." McGonagall said. "Today is a double lesson, and we have plenty to do. Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

The students looked a bit nervous at each other, while McGonagall took a small black bag from her table, and began going around to each table and handing something out. When coming to Isolde's table, the girl was surprised to see McGonagall put three completely normal Muggle matchsticks before her. Once all the students had got three each, McGonagall returned to her table.

"Today, we will split up the double lesson into two parts. In the first part, we will practice transforming these matches into needles, and beetles to buttons in the next part. Transforming matches is a very simple task, which should be learnt fairly quickly." McGonagall said, and found forth her own wand. "You take your wand, tap the match, and say _Compositus Subscalpo_**(1)**. Let me demonstrate…" she held a match high in her left hand, and tapped it with the point of her wand in her right. "Compositus subscalpo."

The match turned into a shiny steel needle before their very eyes. Some looked impressive, while others looked quite indifferent.

McGonagall put the pin onto her table. "Now it's your turn. There are plenty of matches if it should be necessary."

Isolde found forth her wand, and looked at the three matches. Bringing her wand down, she tapped the closest one. "Compositus Subscalpo."

Barely had she said the spell, before all three of her matches transformed into needles at the same time. And not only did her own matches transform into needles, but the other students let out a gasp, when their matches suddenly transformed as well without them doing anything.

"What happened, students?" McGonagall asked slightly confused, when everyone began comparing needles. "Are you already done?"

"Our needles just transformed by themselves, Professor. We didn't even say the spell." Percy Weasley said.

Isolde stared wide-eyed like everyone else in the classroom. McGonagall began walking among the tables, and was quite surprised, if not a bit shocked, to find all the matches transformed into needles, perfect in every sense of the word. The professor mumbled something low, as she took the black bag and began handing out new matches.

"Maybe it was just a coincidence." McGonagall said. "Let's try this again."

The trick didn't repeat itself, but Isolde kept an attentive eye on her matches. She tried putting two of the matches in her lap under the table, for then better focusing on the one on the table. It seemed to work, since only the visible one got transformed and the two under the table didn't. Percy glanced a bit confused at her, but rolled his eyes and returned to his own matches.

The second part of the double lesson was a bit funnier, because some of the beetles fled onto the floor, and caused the other girls to whine in disgust and jump onto their benches, fearing that the creepy insects might crawl up their legs or into their shoes. Isolde giggled low under cover of the boys' laughter. She was one of the very few in her class, besides Percy, who had managed to successfully transform the matches into needles and a handful beetles into buttons, last mentioned even in very first try.

**.:T:.**

After a short break, it was time for the next new subject. Herbology. It took place one of the exterior greenhouses, which lay on the school grounds together with some nearby vegetable patches, where potatoes the sizes of footballs grew. The greenhouse they were in was decorated as a classroom with tables, chairs and a chalkboard. Their teacher was Pomona Sprout, a squat little witch, who was covered in dirt and earth from top to toe and had short, grey, wavy hair.

They should use the lesson to write an essay about the chamomile plant, and which useful abilities the plant had. Isolde couldn't stand chamomile, neither as plant nor tea. It stank and tasted weird. While concentrating about the essay, she also kept wondering what happened in the Transfiguration class. It all happened when _she _flicked _her_ wand. Could her wand have acted on its own and done it? Had she just been eager? Or could it have been one of the other students? But none of the other first-years in her class seemed to know more about magic than her. Well, except from the boy she shared table with, but he didn't look like one there would play tricks on others, or making fun at all for that sake.

The sound of her quill going through the parchment snapped her out of her thoughts and back to reality. By the sight of the tiny hole in the middle of the essay, she cursed annoyed inwardly.

"Alright students," Sprout said. "If you are done, you just roll the parchment together and place it on my desk, and then go for lunch."

Half of the class, including Isolde, rolled their parchment together, took their bags, and placed the scroll on the desk next to the rose, before leaving the greenhouse and went for the Great Hall. All the tables were filled with students, but Isolde managed to get a seat by the table end closest to the door. Taking a bowl of chicken noddle soup, she looked discreetly down her own table, but the students whom eyes she met turned their heads away. Instead she took her Charms textbook up, and began reading while eating.

**.:T:.**

After lunch it was time for Charms. Their teacher was Professor Filius Flitwick, a tiny man who wore green robes. He actually had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. Despite being almost bald, the shock of a white beard covering his face kinda took all the attention from the bald spot. The resemblance between him and a ugly but hilarious garden goblin was striking. The Alder triplets were also quick to speak of him as "Mini Santa Claus". Flitwick was actually very nice; he was very praising, didn't seem to care that some students were a bit slow, and if a student failed to perform a charm, he gently encouraged them to try again.

The first charm they learn how to perform was the Hover Charm, Wingardium Leviosa. They were supposed to practice the charm on their quills, but one of the students tried too hard and ended levitating his side mate all way up into the ceiling, where he got stuck. Flitwick had to carefully levitate the poor victim down again, whereupon the teaching continued undisturbed. However after some minutes, the professor thought the students looked a bit worn out, so he let them use the last fifteen minutes to either play games or get ahead with some homework.

**.:T:.**

Now only the double lesson in Potions was back. Actually a subject Isolde had looked forward to. Her heart began pounding, as she followed with the other students to the base of the Grand Staircase, and headed for the single doorway. There was only one corridor with a narrow spiral staircase, which led downstairs to the underground chambers and dungeons, where both the Slytherin House had residence as well as the Potions classroom and store. The door into the classroom was already open, so Isolde went in together with the others and sat down in front. It was quite chilly inside, and you almost could see your own breath. The classroom was squared-sized, very large, and with big tables, which there stood cauldrons on small magical fire jets on. The few windows in the back wall only let a tiny amount of sunlight in, giving the the whole room a darker atmosphere.

For several minutes, the chatting had sounded merrily across the tables, but then the door shot open and collided with the wall with a crash. Every head snapped in the direction, and saw Professor Snape enter the classroom. His black robes were billowing behind him, almost making him look like an overgrown bat, as he walked up the free passage along the wall, which led up to the front. A second later he began speaking, voice soft and contained.

"There will be no foolish wand waving or silly incantations in this class," when coming up in front, he turned to look at the class. "You are here to learn the subtle art and exact science that is potions making. I don't expect any of you to truly understand the beauty of a softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind and ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle frame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death. If you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as them I usually have to teach."

His eyes wandered over the students' awestruck faces, and lingered a second longer at Isolde's. She smiled, but again he didn't repay it. Instead his arms slowly crossed, and the robes cocooned him like a vampire.

"Ms Snape…" he used only minimal accent on their last name, barely saying it aloud. "Where would you go if I told you to find me a bezoar, and can you tell me the primary use of it?"

Isolde nodded. "A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat, and it can save you from most poisons."

"Correct. What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" he asked again and completely ignored the few students, who had their hands raised. The surprise was total, when they were students from his own dorm. From what Isolde had overheard from the other students earlier, Snape only liked his Slytherins.

"I…" Isolde was a bit taken back by him asking again, but began answering from memory. "When combined, Asphodel and wormwood create a sleeping potion so powerful, that it is known as the Draught of the Living Dead. It makes the drinker go fall into a deep, death-like sleep, hence the potion's name."

Snape just nodded, and glanced over the class. "Good, seeing in the light that no one else seems to have read or for that matter bothered to even open their books…" his eyes returned to rest on her. "Let us see if the sorting hat was right… please tell me the difference between monkswood and wolfsbane, the most common use for matured mandrake root, and what would occur if, let's say, a strand of cat hair was mistakenly put into a dose of Polyjuice potion?"

Isolde knew he was testing her. It was in times like this, that she really appreciated her brilliant memory. "Monkshood and wolfsbane are the names covering the same plant. Mandrake, or Mandagora, when matured is used in potions made to reverse the effect of petrification, or bring back a being in a petrified state. And if a strand of cat hair was placed in a dose of Polyjuice potion, the drinker would take on characteristics of the cat the hair belonged to. However, attempts to transform into animals or part-humans will not reverse automatically, and the drinker will be in aid of a potion or two in order to return into their original shape."

Snape didn't react in any way by hearing all her correct answers, neither by giving a smile or handing out points to Gryffindor. A weak nod was all what was given. Then he snapped out at the rest of the class. "Well, why aren't you all writing this down?"

There was a sudden scramble to find parchment and quills followed by the scratching of quills against said parchment. Isolde wrote down a few notes, just to be safe.

The first potion they were to make was a very simple vitamin potion, which would be handy in case of an outbreak of influenza. Snape made a lazily flick of his wand, and the instructions appeared on the chalkboard. The class was split into pairs of two, according to what Snape saw as fitting. Isolde was, to her dismay, paired with a male Slytherin student, there most of all looked like a rather grumpy bulldog. Not long after it was quite clear, that it wasn't a well-thought decision to pair these two. Isolde was pretty much the one doing all the work, while her "other half" just stood and breathed her in the neck.

Halfway through the process, Snape began walking around the class to either praise, which was the case with all the Slytherins, or criticize when it was the Gryffindors. Upon reaching Isolde's table, he judged the potion.

"The shade of purple is correct, and so are the chamomile odour and consistency…" first there Snape lifted his eyes, and saw that Isolde's partner stood and cradled his bloody nose. "What has happened to you?"

"She hit me!" the Slytherin student complained.

Snape looked at Isolde, there had her eyes lowered, knowing that there was trouble ahead. "Do you dare _hitting_ a student of mine, Ms Snape?"

"He annoyed me." Isolde mumbled low.

For the first three seconds, Snape remained silent. But then he found forth his wand, and went around the table to the hurt first-year Slytherin. "Stand still, Mr Conner, this won't hurt much."

The student froze and whimpered low, as Snape tapped the student's nose and healed it. After playing doctor, Snape went around the table again and put his face down to Isolde's. She slowly lifted her head, and his glare made it impossible for her not to look him straight in the eye.

"You are lucky today, Ms Snape. You are responsible of your house losing 10 points, and you are having the honour of serving the very first detention in the school year." Snape said with a weak sly smile. "It's always a pleasure to hand out detentions. Especially to Gryffindors, there doesn't know how to behave. Your detention is here, tonight at 8 pm."

The Slytherins students giggled malicious, and Snape let them do so, as he walked up to sit by his desk to write a note for McGonagall. Isolde could almost feel the disappointed eyes of the other Gryffindor students, including the ones from the other girls in her dormitory.

Ten minutes before the end of class, they were now brewing a new potion, a so-called Babbling Beverage, there would curse the drinker to speak nonsense for hours. This time Isolde was all on her own. The Slytherin student had been moved to another group. It suited her perfectly, more room for thinking. When the lesson was over, Isolde gripped her bag and returned to the Gryffindor Tower to make homework, constantly feeling that her dorm mates' eyes rested on her. You could hear the two Slytherin girls, who absolutely should see if their Babbling Beverage was working, in the background, trying in vain to keep their mouths closed.

**.:T:.**

When the clock struck 8, she found herself once again in the dungeons and standing by the door into the Potions classroom. Carefully she knocked on. A soft reply was her permission to enter. Since the sun had set hours ago, the classroom was only lit up by the tall candlelights and the chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Professor Snape was sitting by his desk, correcting the students' essays. The front table closest to him was decorated with a cauldron, an extra copy of her Potions textbook, and several Potions ingredients. He looked up when hearing the door open and close, and saw her standing by the door. Without saying a word, he just gave a nod to the worktable. Isolde nodded and quickly sat down. First a minute or so later, Snape put down his quill and turned to her.

"Since you decided to use rather… extraordinary ways to mark yourself during your first double lesson in Potions, you will use the detention to brew the vitamin potion _and_ the Babbling Beverage again. And you will not be dismissed, before your Potions are _perfect_." Snape instructed.

Isolde nodded and silently began brewing the vitamin potion as the first. After some time, she finally looked up at him.

"Severus?" she asked quietly.

He just simply turned his head as cue to continue. She smiled carefully. "I-I should say hello from mum. She was a bit worried, that you never wrote or something. We have missed you."

Snape's face hardened. "Don't think you can talk your way out of your detention. You should be thankful, that I didn't report you to the Headmaster for using violence against another student. I should have known better, than pairing a Slytherin with a Gryffindor. Apparently, you have proved that students of the two houses cannot work together without trying to kill each other."

"But he didn't even help me with the potions! He did nothing but breathing me in the neck!" Isolde objected.

"And then you felt you had the right to hit him?" Snape asked.

"No, but…" Isolde tried, but was cut off.

"I don't want to hear any apologies." Snape said firmly. "The fact that you are my sister doesn't mean that I'll treat you differently than any other student. If you do something like that again, and I get at hint about it, even the slightest, then I will not be as merciful as now. I will not hesitate with getting you expelled, if it should be necessary."

Isolde stared at him for several seconds and wanted to say something, but his expression made her keep silent. So in a try not to bother him further, she returned to the brewing. Not saying a word the rest of the detention. This was not the way she had expected the reunion between brother and sister to be, not at all. Why did it feel like he suddenly… hated her?

**.:T:.**

The days became weeks. Soon it was the 31st October and thus Halloween. On that occasion there would be a feast in the Great Hall the same evening. The Great Hall was decorated with living bats and orange streamers. Hagrid had been busy with carving his huge pumpkins, which was large enough for at least three grown men to sit in, into lanterns, which then, as the bewitched candlelights, flew above the students' heads. The feast itself was as the traditional one, but made to include Halloween specialities; there were juicy apples, black cauldrons full of big lollipops in various colours, cake with carrots drawn on top of white glaze, and even a candy-filled pumpkin for each student like to secure the stomach-ache later on.

There should also be some kind of entertainment in the end. Isolde, who was sitting near the furthest end of the Gryffindor table, was surprised to see the Hogwarts ghosts popping out of the walls and doing formation gliding, for then starting to parody their own or each other's deaths. Sir Nicholas, the Gryffindor ghost, scared the life out of many students by pulling his hair, so his head titled to the side, showing his partially severed neck and why his nickname was "Nearly Headless Nick". Isolde had to admit, that she lost her appetite and felt like vomiting by the sight. One student by the Hufflepuff actually vomited and turned just as white as the ghosts.

A little later Isolde, a little carried away by the good atmosphere, wanted to make fun with her brother, so she managed to capture one of the living bats above the Gryffindor table during the ghosts' show. Discreetly, she bewitched it to fly up and land on Snape's nose. When settled it spread out its black wings, there encircled his eyes and made it look like he wore some sort of mask. The nearest students and teachers giggled low and amused by the sight, but Severus was certainly not the same. After a single use of nonverbal magic, the bat froze and then turned to dust, which fell off his face. Instantly his black eyes, which had a killer look in them, looked among the tables in search for the guilty one, and once finding Isolde, who stared just a second too long, he knew that the hunt was over. After the feast, Snape caught up with Isolde, and told her that her little "joke" had resulted in detention every Friday evening until December.

Oh well, at least it was not every evening. There would still be some free periods… hopefully.

* * *

**1) - _Compositus Subscalpo_**

**___Compositus_ - ****orderly, matching, made up of pieces.**

******_Subscalpo - _to needle._  
_**


	8. First Year First Contact Part II

**Hi guys, sorry for letting you wait for so long. It's been some crazy months, trust me. My work has been stressing me out, my network has gone haywire, and my parents are some imbeciles at the moment XP  
**

** I'll try to update more regularly, but it depends on my work (and how cracked I am, when coming home)**

**Oh well, here's my update and the last part of Isolde's first year. Hope you enjoy! :D  
**

* * *

Finally, the seventh essay was done. Or was it the eighth? Isolde had stopped counting. Her detentions were used to either brew some of the potions they had learnt about until now, or write essays. Mostly about some potion and rightful uses, or what you would do to save a poisoned friend and why. If the essay wasn't perfect, then he made her rewrite it again.

Besides that, it was weird that time could go as fast as it did. Isolde thought that only a few days had passed since Halloween, before it already was Christmas. The Great Hall had been decorated with twelve towering Christmas trees, festoons of holly, mistletoe, and other Christmas oriented stuff. Real live fairies flew around the trees, and warm, dry snow fell from the enchanted ceiling. Everlasting icicles had been applied to the banisters of the Grand Staircase, and the suits of armour Hogwarts had been charmed to sing carols.

Professor McGonagall had walked around among the students, and written down the names of the students, who had decided to stay in the winter holidays. Largely the main part of the students went home, but Isolde had like some few others from Gryffindor decided to stay. It was nice, mostly because she had the dormitory all by herself, since the other girls had gone home.

When it was Christmas Evening, Isolde received her very first real Christmas presents, both from Tom and Alice and also from her mother. Alice had knitted her a long thick red scarf with golden lions on, and a pair of matching gloves. Tom had bought her a new set of ink bottles and good quality quills. Eileen had sent her a large box of home-made cookies, chocolate for her and toffee for Severus. Isolde felt a bit guilty for not being able to give them anything in return, but nothing was said about not sending Christmas cards. So she used a free period to write some and send them off with one of the school owls. Even one was written for Severus, which she put on his desk during a lunch, before quickly skipping off again.

The Christmas feast was held at Christmas Day. They were only twelve in all; seven students, three sixth-years from Gryffindor, three from Slytherin, one seventh-year and two fourth-years, and a fifth-year from Hufflepuff. There were five teachers; Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, the pale man with the turban, who Isolde had found out was called Quirrell, and finally Severus Snape. The four House tables had been placed by the walls, and a single long one was placed in the middle for them all to sit by. Though Snape and Isolde were sitting almost next to each other, only parted by a few inches, they didn't talk together.

There was an almost normal atmosphere by the table, as they ate. The food was really delicious; about five fat, roasted turkeys, mountains of roasted and boiled potatoes, platters of fat chipolatas, and tureens of buttered peas, rich gravy and cranberry sauce. The other students discussed Christmas presents and something called O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. McGonagall and Dumbledore chatted and laughed. Quirrell looked nervously around, like fearing someone would attack him. Hagrid was busy with eating a whole turkey, and Snape looked like he just wanted to be anywhere else than here. For dessert, flaming Christmas puddings were served. Isolde nearly broke a tooth, when suddenly biting in something very hard. Taking it out and looking at it, she saw it was a silver Sickle. When the dessert was over, Isolde had collected five Sickles.

"Severus!" Dumbledore suddenly exclaimed. "Cracker!"

The Headmaster held the one end of a silver cracker, similar to the Muggle ones, to Severus, and seemed almost childishly eager to pull it apart. Severus didn't look amused, but forced himself to "play" along. Isolde was close to get her eardrum blown out by the cannon-like blast the cracker made when exploding, and a cloud of blue smoke engulfed them. Out of the cracker appeared the most hideous purple-pink bonnet, where a mini horticulture seemed to grow on the top. Snape, his face one of distaste, pushed it over to the Headmaster, who gladly took off his tiny hat and put on the new one. The other students were about get choked, when trying to suppress their laughter.

"Severus," Isolde tapped her brother's shoulder, and when he turned his face, he saw her holding the one end of another cracker to him. "Cracker?"

Severus looked bored, but took the other end. Another cannon blast sounded and more blue smoke engulfed them, as the cracker got pulled apart. When the smoke had vanished, Isolde saw a brand new set of Wizard's Chess standing before her, and that the chess pieces were saluting her. Snape just seemed relieved not to get another ugly hat.

But a minute later, something else caught his attention. One of the several white mice, which also popped out of the cracker, found its way from the floor and into his black pant leg. An "incident" which made him sit and stomp almost rhythmically in the floor, until the mouse finally came out again. Isolde was, like the others, struggling with keeping her laughter back, and had to cover her mouth with her hand for several seconds, until she had regained control over her grin.

**.:T:.**

As the year got on the other side of Christmas and into spring, the students could watch how the snow melted, to the annoyance of many, and the cold weather getting replaced by a slightly warmer, but still chilly, pale sun and a light-sapphire blue sky.

Isolde and the other first-years were introduced to a new subject called Defence Against the Dark Arts by a Professor Aoife Ranvita, an elder witch with the attention span of a child. The subject was a core class from first to fifth year. In the first year, they were primarily taught different ways to treat werewolf bites, and practice the Curse of the Bogies; a curse which gave the victim a nasty cold and an extremely running nose. Madam Pomfrey was not happy when once receiving a whole class affected by this curse in her Hospital Wing. Apparently the curse had either backfired on the caster, or the caster hadn't concentrated enough, so the curse had lost direction and hit someone else but its victim.

Isolde had proven to be an industrious student, and was a very skilled witch despite her age. She was good in every subject, always made her homework and got good grades. The only sad thing was that the young girl still hadn't made any friends yet, not even with the girls in the dormitory. She was sure, that everyone in the tower, if not the whole school, thought her to be just as bad as her big brother. This caused many snide comments, and had also resulted in bullying. A few times she had gone to Severus for some support or help, but it ended like it did before. With him dismissing her, before giving her a chance to explain, saying that he didn't have time for "stories". Isolde tried hard to create some kind of brother-sister bond, but it never seemed to "click" between them. So in a try to help herself, she stayed most of the time to herself.

In May the exams had been chosen, and a schedule with times of these had been posted on the bulletin boards in each House. The first-year exams were Charms, Transfiguration, Potions and History of Magic. Up to these, Isolde, when not attending classes, she was mostly to find in the Study Hall, an adjacent room to the library. She could sit there for hours, skipping dinner, and go through everything learnt through the year; every charm was practiced several times, the books of the exam-subjects were red again, and every Potion was made to the point of perfection. The exams should not take her by surprise.

One evening she was again alone in the back of the Study Hall, and struggled with completing an exercise Flitwick had given them. After having moved the chairs and tables up against the walls using the Hovering Charm, so the middle was cleared, she used _Avis_ to conjure a bundle of birds, in this case bright-blue canaries, which she should try hitting with Finite. Of the about twenty birds conjured, she had only hit eight. They were hiding now, but when stomping hard in the floor, they would come forth and fly around the room. It was good that she had made them and their flapping wings noiseless, so Madam Pince wouldn't be alarmed.

"Come on small canaries…" she hummed low, before stomping hard. Instantly a swarm of blue missiles flew across the room. "Finite!"

Her wand flew through the air, as the thin rays of light shot from the tip and hit the birds, which vanished with a small puff. Now five birds were hit, while the rest searched refuge under the tables and in the windowsills by the ceiling.

"And what are you doing here this late?" a cold voice suddenly sounded.

Isolde whirled in the direction of the voice, and saw Severus standing in the archway into the Study Hall.

"Professor Flitwick gave us an exercise to improve our reaction time in Charms." Isolde explained.

His eyes turned upwards, and noticed three of the birds sitting in the windowsills. "I see…" he kept his eyes on the birds, there suddenly vanished with three small puffs. "Are there more of them?"

"Under the tables," Isolde said, wondering why the birds vanished when no spell or charm was uttered.

Severus rolled his eyes, but flicked his wand and moved the tables and chairs back in place. Instantly the canaries began flying around, and he pointed his wand into the middle of the room and a second later, the rest of the feathered beings disappeared with a tiny puff. Isolde looked bewildered, wondering where the canaries had gone.

"But I wasn't done."

"You are now," Severus moved from the archway and longer into the room. "I hear from the other teachers, that you are an industrious student. It's rare that I hear such things about the Gryffindor House. Why don't you take some of the other first-year dunderheads from your house under your wings?"

Isolde shook her head, and went to the back table to pack her bag. "No one is interested in working or even being friends with me, because I'm a Snape. They think I might be just like you, and will report to you about everything."

Severus seemed a bit surprised over the quite unexpected hypothesis. "I cannot see why that should be a bad thing. The discipline here at the school is poor already. At least you don't seem to be another typical Gryffindor. Maybe Gryffindor's quite tarnished image can get improved. I think Minerva would appreciate, if more than just a _few_ Gryffindors passed their first exams."

God, Isolde hated his sarcasm. "You don't even mean that. You would love to see Gryffindor fail. I heard you the other day!"

"What did you heard?" Severus asked, suddenly curious.

"I…" Isolde narrowed her lips, knowing she had said too much. After a moment, she continued. "I overheard a conversation between you and Filch in Monday, when I left the library. You called the students of the Gryffindor House –what was it now- lazy, attention seeking and arrogant, and they were a disgrace to the whole school."

Snape frowned slightly. "You should not listen to other people's conversations. What I talk to my colleagues about is private, and none of your business."

"Why do you hate Gryffindor so much?" Isolde wanted to know. "Gryffindor has never done anything to you."

Anger appeared in Severus' black eyes, but his voice was calm. "I have my reasons to dislike Gryffindor."

"Name one. Is it because of me being a Gryffindor?"

_I could give you four reasons_. "I said, I have _my reasons_."

"But…"

"Enough! When I say it doesn't concern you, then it doesn't concern you. I advise you to keep quiet, if you won't get into trouble."

"You are not my mother." It flew out of Isolde's mouth, before she had a chance to even consider the words.

Snape didn't even blink. "No, but while you are here at Hogwarts, I and the other teachers are your superiors, whom the students shall show respect and obey." In three long steps, he was over by her and barely in an arm's distance. Isolde stepped back against the wall, but eye-contact was inevitable.

"And disrespect can result in either detentions or expulsion." His glare bored into her. "The incident with you hitting the Slytherin student was enough to get you expelled right on the spot. The boy's parents even came to the school to talk to the Headmaster about it. They demanded that you got expelled, but I stood up and defended you. I had to explain, that it was an accident and _I_ was to blame for lacking supervision."

Isolde barely believed her own ears. It was a bit surreal for her to hear. He had taken the blame, and saved her from getting expelled. But why? He was, like always, right. It was wrong to hit another student, even if he or she deserved it. Isolde hadn't even apologized yet, because the Slytherin had avoided her ever since the Potion class. Maybe it would only have been fair, if she had been expelled. Why hadn't she been told, that the boy's parents had been here? She could have explained them her side of the story, and apologised if they wanted it. Severus could see the questions in her eyes, and continued before giving her a chance to turn her thoughts into words.

"But don't think it will repeat itself." Severus said. "I warn you. If I find you denying orders or breaking the rules once more, then I will not save you again. Take your things and return to your House, before I decide to take points."

Isolde's eyes were still wide open, but she quickly grabbed her bag and left the Study Hall. But just before exiting through the archway, she turned around and smiled carefully. "Thanks, Severus."

Severus did motion with his head, but it was impossible to identify it as a nod or a sign of dismissing. Something told her that it was the last, and she quickly left the library. A smile was plastered to her face most of the way back to the Tower. Isolde hurried through the slightly populated common room, up the staircase and into the dormitory, where the other girls were chatting in Mariah's bed, reading and discussing some Muggle magazines, while sharing a large can of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. The girls lifted their heads, and saw their dorm mate go for her bed without saying hello. Though Isolde had almost lived a year with the girls, she didn't trust them or talked much to them.

"Isolde, do you want to join us?" Mariah asked.

"No thanks. I'm tired." Isolde replied dryly without turning her head. Why did Spencer even ask her to join their little party? That girl was of a Half-Blood family so rich, that she could buy friends, which probably was the case with the other girls. Isolde had noticed, that they all wore identical friendship bracelets of what seemed to be pure silver. The young witch wouldn't fool herself, and let Spencer think she could "buy" Isolde's friendship.

Isolde put her bag on the small shelf in her bedside table, changed into her nightclothes, and climbed into her bed. It was nice that the beds had curtains you could draw all way around, so you could have some privacy in your own little cubicle. Isolde had charmed her curtains, so they were soundproof. Meaning that she could speak normally with Nola, curse loudly, or practice charms without risking getting heard and disturbed.

"What do you say, Nola?" Isolde spoke softly, and stroked Nola over the back. "Do you think what Severus said was true? That he took the blame for me?"

Nola purred and rolled up in her lap. Isolde smiled. "No, I don't think so either. But then again, he has never lied to me…" the smile slowly faded, and her face turned tense. "Not what I know of, that is. I have a feeling, that these years will be anything but easy."

**.:T:.**

The months almost flew by, and soon the graduation exams were just around the corner, to the horror of many first-years. Madam Pomfrey had probably never had that many first-years with stress before; they literally fell inwards the door in piles. Even Professor Quirrell had visited the Hospital Wing, almost twice a week. How it was possible for the man to examine anyone without suffering from a panic attack, or stuttering himself to death was a wonder.

Yet Isolde wasn't as nervous as her peer students. Thanks to her industrious revision, she felt well-prepared on the day for her first exam, which was Charms with Professor Flitwick. Standing outside the Charm's classroom, Isolde waited patiently for her turn. Sitting against the wall, she re-braided her hair a few times in lack of something else to do. For some reason, she felt surprisingly calm. After some minutes the door opened, and the bulldog-faced Slytherin student came out with a pair of antlers growing up through his scalp, while Flitwick came plodding behind.

"You better go to the Hospital Wing, Mr Conner!" Flitwick said. After mumbling something low to himself, he turned around and saw Isolde standing by the wall. "Ah Ms Snape, good to see you. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready, Professor." Isolde said and gripped tightly around the strap of her shoulder-bag with both hands. That was weird. Where did this sudden fit of nervousness come from?

"Very good, then. Please come inside." Flitwick smiled and stepped aside. "Don't be nervous, dear. It's an easy exercise."

Isolde went into the classroom, and the small Professor closed the door. He walked up to his desk, his walking style reminded a little of a penguin's, and levitated himself onto the pile of books on the chair. In the 30 minutes the exam lasted, Flitwick wanted his students to get a pineapple to tap-dance across the table. Isolde managed to get her pineapple to dance after only ten minutes. Flitwick was surprised to see how fast it succeeded her. He said that her grade would get even better, if she could recall and perfectly perform at least 3 spells or charms taught during the year, and then explain type, effect, and if they had a certain colour or light. Isolde gave him 5 charms, there among Glacius, which first was taught in the third year. Flitwick was very impressed, and passed her with words like "outstanding" and "skilled beyond your age", pretty much the same things the Sorting Hat had said.

**.:T:.**

The exam in Transfiguration was a bit different. McGonagall gave each student a bunny, she wanted transformed into a pair of home slippers. Extra points were given for how soft the slippers were, and points were taken off if the slippers still had whiskers. Isolde got a white bunny, which she succeeded transforming into a perfect pair of home slippers without whiskers or ears or any other "impurities". Isolde was surprised to feel how soft they were, and genuinely considered smuggling them out hidden inside her robe. Sadly the slippers transformed back into a bunny again, when the exam was over.

**.:T:.**

Isolde had some suspicions about the exam in Potions, and what kind of nerve-racking and difficult potion they would be forced to brew. She also thought it to be an individual exam like the others, but was surprised to see that it was a group exam, and she was in together with two others, one Hufflepuff and one Slytherin. Snape wanted them to brew a Forgetfulness Potion. A recipe Isolde knew very well, and didn't see as a challenge. But the most annoying about the exam was how Snape behaved. He sneaked around like a homeless shadow, making the other students nervous by breathing down their necks. While Isolde managed to ignore her brother's sneaking and distracting behaviour, the Hufflepuff student suffered from a nervous breakdown, and had to be carried out afterwards by his dorm mates, who waited outside.

Once all the students had been in and had left, Isolde went back into the classroom. As expected, Severus hadn't gone for lunch like everyone else. Hearing the door open and close made him turn his head slightly, and he saw her standing a little away.

"You should be for Lunch now." He reminded her, wondering if she had forgotten it.

"I know." She replied, and hugged her textbook closer. "I just… How do you… think I did on the exam?"

He glanced at her, but his eyes slowly returned to the piece of parchment before him on the desk, where a letter was semi-finished. Putting the tip of a dark quill into the ink bottle, he began writing further. "You did well, for a Gryffindor."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Isolde asked, finding it annoying that Severus kept having that condescending view of the Gryffindor House.

Severus passed a strained sign, but stopped abruptly and began speaking. "Let me put it in another way; you neither impressed nor disappointed me."

Neither nor? Isolde never understood him, when he spoke like that. Maybe it meant that her Potion only had been average or mediocre.

"So, it was either average or poor?"

Severus' quill stopped in the middle of a sentence. "Have you not other things to do, than asking me questions I already have answered?"

Isolde felt the breath pause in her throat, but then looked down at her feet and sighed low. Disappointed and a bit sad, she turned around and left. She walked past the Great Hall, where laughter could be heard, and continued back to the Tower. Her appetite had vanished just like her good mood.

**.:T:.**

Finally. When this exam was over, they could relax and look forward to go home for the school summer vacation. The last exam was the exam in History of Magic by Professor Binns. It was also a group examination, and consisted of a test with a whole lot of questions about historical figures in the wizarding world, which the students had one hour to answer. The silence in the Great Hall was inches thick, and the only sound penetrating it was the scratching of several quills against the parchment. Binns was the only ghost to ever teach at Hogwarts. He was bald and had a long white beard, and looked pretty much like an old tortoise when pursing his lips. The story about him was that he at some point had been very old, and had fallen asleep in an armchair in front of the fireplace in the staffroom. When he woke up the next morning, he simply "left" his body behind in the armchair.

"Alright class, the time is up. The exam is over. Put down your quills." Binns said in his slow droning voice. "Roll your parchment together, and then you can leave the hall."

Isolde rolled her parchment together and left it on the table, before going out of the hall. She walked over and looked at the huge hourglasses, which recorded the points of the different Houses. Slytherin's hourglass was filled almost to the edge with green jewels, then came Ravenclaw, while Gryffindor was second-lowest just before Hufflepuff. The bad conscience began emerging again; she had really taken some points during the year. 40 or 50 points at least. It had never been her intention to be that troublesome, and so even in her first year.

Back in the Gryffindor Tower, many of the students sat around with ice bags on their heads in a try to ease the throbbing headaches caused by "educational overflow". She rolled her eyes, and went upstairs and entered the empty dormitory. The other girls were out, possibly outside to enjoy the good weather. Isolde went over and sat onto her bed. Nola came forth from her carrier under the bed, and jumped up to keep her company. Isolde scratched her on the head.

"It's weird that the first year already is over, don't you think? The time goes fast. I hope that I pass my exams, so I can go into my second year. I know mum and Severus are expecting a lot of me… though he not really seems to care at all. Oh well, I better pack my things. The end-of-term feast is in two days."

Nola stretched lazily, stepped up and lay down on Isolde's pillow. The cat watched curiously as its master began packing down her belongings, clothes and schoolbooks.

**.:T:.**

The end-of-term feast was held inside the Great Hall, and was always a big event no matter what year. Everyone ate great food, while merry chattering and laughter sounded across the tables. Well except by the Gryffindor table, where all the students, including McGonagall by the teachers' table, looked quite dull, while by the Slytherin table a triumphing smile was plastered onto the faces of the Slytherin students. They must all have seen the hourglasses.

Isolde, who sat between Aurora and Mariah by the table end nearest the staff table, corrected her pointy black hat, and looked up at the Professors. McGonagall and Dumbledore shared a look and a nod, whereupon McGonagall tapped her glass with her fork. The chatting stopped and every face turned up to the front, where Dumbledore rose from his chair. A few seconds of silence occurred, before he began speaking.

"Another year is gone. And now as I understand it, the House Cup needs awarding. And the positions are as follows…" every ear in the room pricked up to listen to the Headmaster. "In 4th place, Hufflepuff with 212 points."

A brief applause sounded from the other tables, while a few of the said house tried to pull down their black hats to cover their faces, there blushed almost as if in shame.

"In 3rd place, Gryffindor with 390 points." The applause was slightly louder, but not much. Isolde looked a bit ashamed; the lack of points was her fault as well. She vowed to change behaviour in the second year to obtain the lost points from this one.

"In 2nd place, Ravenclaw with 430 points." The sound of clapping hands was noticeably louder now, and even a few whistled.

"And in 1st place, with 457 points… Slytherin House." Barely had Dumbledore said this, before the Slytherin table exploded into loud rejoice and the round of mocking looks, there were sent to the next table. Isolde glanced up at the staff table, and saw that Snape were clapped as well, not even blinking or smiling in triumph.

"Slytherin wins the House Cup!"

The applause got renewed strength, and black hats flew everywhere by the Slytherin table. The tapestries directly above changed into Slytherin colours, and began sprinkling green and silver confetti. Dumbledore looked directly upwards, and so did everyone one else, and the most of the first-years gaped. Out of the top mosaic window, above the tall window behind the staff table, a beautiful majestic golden trophy emerged. It slowly levitated down to stand on the podium, which stood in front of the staff table. It was blank at first, but then it turned silver instead of gold and Slytherin's crest appeared on the front. Now the Slytherins really wanted to show themselves off, so one of the seventh-year students rose and flicked his wand at the ceiling, where firework in green and silver colours exploded, fortunately without putting the tapestries on fire. Slytherin had won for the second year in a row.

Isolde looked with envy at the firework and Slytherin colours dominating the walls and the ceiling; if she hadn't been that "keen" to get points taken from Gryffindor, then maybe the green and silver colours would have been red and golden, and the fiery snake replaced by a noble lion. Perhaps next year would be Gryffindor's year.

**.:T:.**

The train howled. Hagrid was busy with getting the students into the train, as it was about to leave. The conductor helped with getting the students' trunks into the luggage carriage, while the students jumped into the passenger sections to their compartments. Isolde had found the one she arrived in, but then remembered something important. Stepping down onto the platform again, she went through the crowds and over to Hagrid, who smiled down at her.

"Somethin' on 'our mind, my friend?" he asked.

"Hagrid, I should say hello from Tom." She said.

Hagrid looked surprised. "I 'idn't know you knew Tom. 'ave you talked to him recently?"

She shook her head. "Not really. He said when I left for my first year, that I should say hello to you. His hello has been delayed long enough. I think I forgot."

Hagrid chuckled through the massive beard. "That 'appens. 'Ow, off with ya."

Isolde smiled goodbye, before jumping into the train and found her compartment, where Nola already made claimed the right row of seats. Pulling down the window, she put her head out and looked back. Hogwarts hovered majestically on its hill, and her eyes kept resting on it, until the castle disappeared behind the tall tree crowns. She didn't feel like the train was taking her home. On the contrary, it felt like it was taking her _away_. The thought of Severus might be rejoicing the prospect of being alone for nearly two months crossed her mind, and made her feel bitter.

Plumbing down into the middle seat next to Nola, she found her sketching book in her bag and began drawing. Hoping to concentrate on that, instead of her thoughts. Quickly a face began taking form. She had been drawing, since she was very young. There was not really anything else to do at Spinner's End anyway.

As they got closer to London and King's Cross, Isolde changed from her Hogwarts uniform and back into her Muggle clothes, and put her school clothes into her bag. Isolde got Nola into her carrier, and safely locked the lattice, just as the train howled as it slowed down to slowly roll into Platform 9¾. Isolde looked out of the window, and the platform were so crowded that the concrete floor barely was visible. The train gave a gentle jerk for then holding completely still. Isolde carried the carrier in one hand, and the bag over her shoulder, while going from the compartment and into the now just as crowded corridor. After quite a bit of pushing and shoving, she finally came out of the train and onto steady ground. Her eyes looked around among the many faces closest by, but none was the familiar face she had hoped to see.

Thinking that her mother might be somewhere else in the crowd, she found an empty luggage cart a little away, and went over to the luggage carriage, where the conductor helped the students with finding their trunks. After getting hers onto the luggage cart, and with Nola in her carrier placed on top, Isolde made her way out of the crowds and over to a bench near the magical barrier. Sitting there, her eyes looked at the families, who left the platform with their sons or daughters. The Alder triplets left escorted by two huge men in black suits, they looked like agents or bodyguards. Not only were the triplets abnormally pretty of their age, they were also very rich. How would it feel like to be that rich? To have all the money you have ever dreamt off, and just use them as you desire? Good? Bad? Mariah Spencer was rich, but had acted snobbishly. If every girl got snobbish when getting that kind of money in their hands, Isolde would never be rich.

Isolde looked down the opposite way of the platform, and at the archway where the train had rolled in. She already missed Hogwarts, and wanted to return right on the spot. Then she was brought out of her thoughts, when feeling a hand on her shoulder. Isolde turned her head, and lit up in a bright smile.

"Mum, then you came!" Isolde exclaimed happily, and jumped up to hug her mother.

Eileen smiled warmly, and put her arms around her daughter. "I'm sorry to let you wait, but I had something important to do, before I could get here. I hope you haven't been waiting too long."

Isolde shook her head, as they broke the embrace. "Just a few minutes. Nola has kept me company."

Eileen nodded with a smile. "Alright. If you have everything, then let us return to the Leaky Cauldron. Tom and Alice look forward to see you again."

"Me too. I yearn for a cup of Alice's special tea blend." Isolde smiled. "Can't you stay for a cup?"

"We will see." Eileen returned the smile, and walked to her daughter's left side, and put her hand on Isolde's right shoulder. The to-be second year pushed the luggage cart, and they walked through the magical barrier and back into the Muggle world. The platforms beyond the magical one were just as populated.


	9. Grades and Clocks

**Hi everyone (and especially all my lovely followers, reviewers, and all of you, who have faved my story so far) :) **

**This will be my last update for some weeks, because I'm going back to school... :(**

**Anyway! As I promised, I'll try to put up links for you to follow Isolde's development; as 12-year-old, google "_Robyn Maclean"_ and add "_2004"_ afterwards.  
**

**Enjoy!  
**

* * *

The summer passed fast. Besides using some of the summer working in the Leaky Cauldron, where she helped Tom and Alice with the summer rush, she also tried to get ahead on her homework.

She woke up a sunny morning, but a glance at the clock on the bedside table made her face sad. It was the 12th August, and her 12th birthday. Though this should be a day of celebration, it had never been seen as a memorable day home at Spinner's End. Both Severus and Tobias had never cared; the day only reminded Isolde's father that another mouth-to-feed and cost had been born, just like her brother. But Eileen wasn't of that opinion; Severus and Isolde were the apples of her eye, and meant everything to her. It made Eileen sad, that she couldn't afford a party or proper presents for them, but it didn't stop her from trying to make the days as special as possible anyway. When they had been younger, Eileen had taken them out for a large ice cream in the Diagon Ally on their birthdays. Severus grew tired of that "tradition", when he was around 13, but Isolde still loved it.

After taking a shower, she collected her hair into a high ponytail and changed into a pair of dark jeans, a white-green striped top, and sandals. The Engorgement Charm had come out to be handy, since she had grown quite a bit in height during the summer, and saw it as a waste of money to buy new clothes. Hiding a yawn behind her hand, she left her room and plodded downstairs. God, she was hungry. Maybe there was some soup from yesterday back in the kitchen. She greeted the few morning guests in the bar area, before stepping into the kitchen.

_"Happy Birthday!"_

Isolde stopped abruptly but then smiled brightly. Standing around the dining table were Tom and Alice and Eileen. Tom stood in front of the table, and in a most odd way, which got him to appear larger than he was.

"W-what's happening?" Isolde grinned.

"It's your birthday, silly." Eileen smiled and walked forth. Placing a loving arm around her daughter's shoulder, she guided her over towards the table.

When coming over, Tom moved aside and revealed why he had hidden the table. Isolde looked wonderstruck. There stood a large chocolate cake with her name written with white icing, and neatly placed around were her second year books for Hogwarts. A letter balanced against one of the books. Isolde glimpsed the words 'report card' on the front. Oh God, her grades for the first year had arrived. She was right about to reach for the letter, when three pairs of arms embraced her in a tight birthday hug.

"Mum, Tom, Alice… I can't breathe!" Isolde laughed. "Give me a chance to experience my birthday!"

The adults took the hint, and let the young girl breath. Isolde smiled and reached for the letter, but then her hand stopped just before touching it. Her grades. Would they be good or bad? When the letter stood there was it because the others wanted to see them too. Another thing was also wrong. Report card meant that not only would her grades be written, but possibly also the many times she had taken points from her House. Isolde would hate to disappoint them.

"Something wrong, dear?" Eileen asked.

"Nothing." Isolde took the letter, turned it around to the backside, and slowly opened it. Inside there two sides of parchment. The first was her end-of-term report card. By each subject was written a grade, and in the bottom of the report card was written additional comments from the teachers.

**"Student name: Isolde Snape House: 1st year Gryffindor Head of House: M. McGonagall**

**Pass grades: O – Outstanding E - Exceeding Expectations A – Acceptable**

**Fail Grades: P – Poor D – Dreadful T - Troll**

_**Astronomy – A**_

_**Charms – E**_

_**Defence Against the Dark Arts – O**_

_**Flying Lessons – E**_

_**Herbology – E**_

_**History of Magic – E**_

_**Potions – A**_

_**Transfiguration – E**_

**Comments:**

**M. McGonagall - _Isolde Snape is a very industrious student; her eagerness in learning as much as possible is remarkable. Yet she lacks the desire to work in groups. _****It shall also be noticed, that Isolde often seems very alone and rarely interacts with her class- or housemates.**

**F. Flitwick - _Charms seems to be one of her strongest subjects. Her skills are close to be equal to the ones of a a third-year student. However, she is not keen on group work and tries to avoid it if possible. This makes certain exercises in the classes difficult to do._ **

**S. Snape - _Needs to pay more attention to the class. Misses general respect for her classmates. After an incident in her first year, I find it irresponsible to let her work in groups. If she has any hope of continuing going to my class, her behaviour needs drastic improvement._"**

Isolde was a bit taken back from what she red. Firstly, she hadn't expected her grades to almost only consist of E's, which was the second top grade. Secondly, a slightly offended frown appeared, when reading the comment relating to Potions. What some... some rubbish to write! Her behaviour didn't need "drastic improvement"! She barely said anything in his classes, and if she remembered correctly, the so-called "incident" was the stupid Slytherin student's fault. And the thing about her needing to pay more attention? More rubbish! She was paying attention! Severus kept her attentive by constantly asking her questions, which got more and more difficult, while fully ignoring the others. It seemed to have become a habit. And her skills in Potion Making weren't _that_ bad. She was one of the few in the class, who managed to brew the potions successfully almost by every lesson. And thirdly… it was easy to write that her social skills were poor, when no one wants to spend time with you. McGonagall and Flitwick should try swap place with her, and see how "fun" it is to be a Snape.

"What is that for some rubbish to write…" Tom exclaimed, after having peeked over Isolde's shoulder. "Not good in group work. Me and Alice weren't that either, and we did well without."

Alice nodded. "As I keep saying; the expectations are already too high when the first-years arrive. Blimey, they expect you to do everything, know everyone and every inch of the castle after a month."

Isolde felt a bit cheered up, but Severus' snide comment still rung in her head. The more she analysed the sentence and understood it, the worse and more offending it sounded.

"Oh well, that's just words. The best thing is that you got such good grades, and came into your second year." Tom said and clapped his hands together. "Now Isolde, it's time to cut out the cake."

Isolde looked at him for a second, and then smiled. Putting the report card into the envelope, she took the cake knife and cut each of them a piece. They used some hours together, talking, eating cake, playing cards and Wizard's Chess, where they competed in pairs, Tom and Alice vs. Eileen and Isolde. Mother and daughter won superiorly. Though Isolde didn't receive any real presents, she felt that it had been one of the best birthdays ever.

**.:T:.**

It felt like the whole world's population was gathered at King's Cross this morning. You could neither get back nor forth. The most annoying was that if someone bumped into you, they didn't even apologised but just grunted like it was your fault and not theirs.

"Come on Isolde, you are going to miss the train!" Eileen urged, while looking back. Only to see Isolde had fallen several meters behind.

"I'm hurrying as much as I can, mum!" Isolde shouted. "It's not easy to push your way through crowds with a heavy luggage cart!"

Eventually they came to the magical barrier, and they hurried through. Isolde went first with her luggage cart, and Eileen came right behind her. But they both froze, when they saw the last part of the long row of red passenger carriages leave the platform through the exit. They had missed the train.

"God damn it…"

"What do we do now?" Isolde asked in slight panic. "Can't we call the train back or something?"

Eileen shook her head, and ran a hand up through her hair. It was obvious that she tried hard to think of a way Isolde could get to Hogwarts in time. "Well, we can't stand here. Come, we return to the Leaky Cauldron, and then we must take it from there."

Isolde nodded and pushed the cart back through the barrier. On their way back, Isolde scowled angrily at each Muggle, who passed by. It was their fault that she missed the train. Damn take that humans were gregarious beings, especially at the most urgent and stressing times. When they came back outside, Eileen quickly got Tom's car from the parking lot and helped Isolde with getting her trunks inside. Nola in her carrier got placed at the back seat. All the way back to the Leaky Cauldron, Isolde sat with her elbow on the edge of the window, head resting at her fisted hand, and her eyes looking sideways out of the window.

When driving around to the backside of Leaky Cauldron, Eileen parked by the door. They sat in silence for a moment or so, before Eileen glanced at her daughter, who still sat in the same way, the frustrated look still present in her face.

"Isolde, don't think more about it." Eileen sighed. "What is done is done."

Isolde rolled discreetly her eyes. "I know."

"Look," Eileen scratched her right eyebrow. "Maybe I can ask Severus to come and get you via the Floo network."

Now Isolde turned her eyes to her mother with a slight frown. "You know he hates me, right?"

"Of course he doesn't hate you." Eileen replied a bit tired. "Come on, let's go inside."

After getting her trunks out of the boot, Eileen used the Hovering Charm to make them float before them. Nola meowed nervously by the weird sensation of levitating freely in the air. Isolde opened the back door, and they went inside. Beyond the backdoor was a narrow corridor, which split in a T-formation a little ahead. To the left was the stair to the basement, where the stores also were, and to the right was a stair up to another corridor, where Tom's office laid together with a small library. If you continued down the same corridor, you would eventually end in the dining room.

The two witches continued into the dining room, which surprisingly were empty despite it soon was lunch time. Activity could be heard from the kitchen next to the dining room, so they went over and saw Alice cooking soup for lunch. Alice turned around by the sound of footsteps, and nearly dropped her soup spoon by the sight of them standing there.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. "Did you miss the train?"

Isolde didn't answer, but looked at a point somewhere before her feet.

"The station was full of people, and it was nearly impossible for us to get back and forth." Eileen explained. "Can I use the fireplace in the room behind the bar to contact Severus, so he can come and get Isolde?"

"Of course." Alice nodded. "Tom is out buying vegetables. I'll just finish the soup, and then I'll join you."

Eileen nodded and guided Isolde and her trunks out of the kitchen, through the dining room and the bar area, and into the room behind the bar. It looked like it always did, boring and kinda coolly. The only difference was that Tom still hadn't repaired the window, there had been broken by some boys, who attempted burglary some weeks ago. The desk and chairs stood dusty and unused. It was first recently Isolde had realised how uncomfortable the chairs actually were. Eileen levitated the trunks over by the wall, before going over to the fireplace, where the fire still danced merrily. Isolde got a bit curious, and went over to stand next to her mother. Eileen took what seemed to be a flowerpot from the mantelpiece, took a handful of the "dirt", which looked like fine powder, and threw it into the fire.

"Severus Snape's Office, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Eileen said and in the moment after these words were uttered, the flames turned emerald-green. Then Eileen went down onto her knees, and sat close to the flames. Isolde looked a bit uncomfortable, nervous if the flames would catch her mother's hair or her clothes. But she got surprised, when Eileen started speaking to the green flames.

"Severus? Severus, are you there?"

A minute or so passed without reply, but then a face appeared in the green inferno. Though the flames made the face dance slightly, she would recognise the hooked nose everywhere.

"What do I owe the honour of you contacting me over the Floo?" Severus asked calm.

Eileen looked from the flames and up at her daughter, who slowly got down on her knees.

"Hello Severus."

Severus frowned when seeing her. "Should you not be at the train, young lady?"

Isolde sank the lump in her throat. "I… I missed it. We arrived just to see it leave the platform."

"Why does that not surprise me?"

Isolde looked down on her hands in her lap. Eileen looked from her daughter to her son. "It was not her fault, Severus. The station was too crowded for us to get forth in time. I have contacted you, because I hoped that you would come through and bring Isolde with you back to Hogwarts via the Floo. Is that possible for you?"

Severus seemed to look at something next to him on his side of the network, but then looked back at them. "Very well, I will be there in an hour."

Isolde nodded and with that Severus' face disappeared, and the flames returned normal. Isolde got up and sat down on the top trunk, her feet balancing on the edge of the bottom one. Her elbows rested against her knees, and her hands collected before her mouth. Again the young girl looked deeply in thought. Of course she was relieved, that he would come and get her. But… why an hour? Did he need to get dressed? No, her brother was a morning person, and was often already up before sunset no matter what time of year it is. Cleaning? No, he would just flick his wand and everything would shine, he didn't need that much time for what there could be done in a second. Besides, though being perfectionistic and loved order, he didn't mind a little dust here and there. Perhaps it would give his potions bottles an antique look. Then it could only be one of her last two ideas; that either McGonagall or the Headmaster had to get informed about her early arrival, or he needed time to get used to the annoying thought about being forced to "babysit" her again for another year. God, she hated that. _She was 12 years old_; she didn't need her brother or anyone to babysit her.

Eileen observed her daughter and knew that, when Isolde first had taken that thinking position, there was no way to get through to her. It was a habit Isolde had developed when being around 8 or 9. The girl could sit like that for hours, dwelling in thoughts and memories. The only sight of "life" was the 10-seconds interval of her eye blinking.

A little time later, and the flames and embers all were died out, there sounded a loud crackling "pop" from the fireplace, and a man with shoulder-length greasy black hair stepped out of the green flames.

"Ah Severus, it's nice to see you." Eileen greeted her son welcome. "Thank you for coming."

Severus simply nodded. "Is she ready? I cannot stay for long."

"I think so, but I'm not sure." Eileen gave a nod in Isolde's direction. Severus turned around and saw his little sister sitting there on the trunks, looking into the empty air while her hands still were collected before her mouth.

"What is she doing?"

Eileen shook her head. "Isolde often does that when deep in thought. She can sit like that for hours. I try to get through to her, but she doesn't seem to hear me. It's like she is in her own little world."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "At least she _is_ thinking, possibly the only one in the whole Gryffindor House. Does it bother you?"

"No, but I don't think it's healthy to think that deeply."

"You are aware that I can hear every word, right?" Isolde huffed from the trunks, her eyes moving in their sockets. "And stop talking about me like I'm some wonder child in Gryffindor, Severus. It's becoming really tiring to listen to."

A knock sounded on the door, and they saw Alice peeking inside. Her face almost lit up by the sight of Severus. "Oh you have arrived, Severus." her old eyes moved up and down his front. "Oh my, you have grown. The last time I saw you, was ages ago when you just were a wee boy. And look at you now; a handsome young man. What was it now I used to call you, when your mother took you here… oh, I remember it now. _Sevy_, it was. "

The look on Severus' face was priceless, and Isolde tried her best to keep back the laugh threatening to break free. Unfortunately, a tiny fragment of the sound escaped her lips, and if eyes could kill, she would be stone-dead by the look Severus gave her.

"Sorry, Severus. Old habits are hard to forget." Alice apologised a bit sheepish. "Do you all want some soup, before you leave?"

"I'm afraid that I cannot join your little party. I have important errands to do back at Hogwarts." Severus said. "Isolde, get yourself ready."

Isolde stood up. "But what about my trunks?"

"We have two options. One of us goes through and the other stays behind to send off the trunks, and then goes through afterwards. Or, we both go through and then hope, that someone bothers to send your luggage off."

"You both go through," Eileen instantly said. "Isolde is new to this, and I won't risk her to end up somewhere unknown. I'll stay and send your trunks through."

Isolde nodded, and stepped into the fireplace. Severus took a handful of the Floo powder from the flowerpot, and stepped in as well. The fireplace was just large enough for him to stand up without risking scraping his head against the top. While he held the powder in left hand, his free arm went around Isolde and held on to her right shoulder. That was something she wasn't used to, and tried to shrug his hand off, but his grip got tighter almost to the point of it getting uncomfortable.

"Like your mother said, she doesn't want you to end up somewhere unknown." He huffed low. "Are you ready?"

Isolde looked at Eileen. "Bye mum, I promise to write."

Eileen waved smiling. "Bye Isolde, have a good school year. And Severus, please keep an eye on her."

"Mum!"

Severus rolled his eyes. "Severus Snape's Office, Hogwarts!" with that, he dropped the powder and the emerald-green flames shot up around them. Isolde got frightened and clung to her brother.

It was even weirder travelling by Floo than to Apparate. By Apparition it felt like being squeezed through a rubber tube. This was certainly different. The passage they travelled through was barely wide enough for them both, and Isolde felt her elbows scrape against the sides even if trying to keep them as close as possible to her body. Other fireplaces passed by in a vertical line, and you got an ultra-brief look into the living rooms beyond them. Isolde noticed a hideous pink armchair with white ruffles through one of them.

After a minute or so, they got firm ground under their feet. They stepped out, and Isolde looked around. She had never been in her brother's office before, though she served detention with him from Halloween to December. Isolde thought the office had a weird shape; it was neither square nor round, but almost like a mix. The room was high-ceiled, gloomy and dimly-lit, and had shelves covering every inch of the shadowy walls. On the shelves stood large glass jars filled with slimy, revolting things, such as bits of animals and plants, floating in potions of varying colours. In the far corner of the room was a door, probably into his private chambers, and a large cupboard containing Snape's private stock of Potions ingredients.

Isolde took some steps forth, and then looked back. The fireplace was right next to the door into the office. Isolde noticed two jars standing on the mantelpiece, and when stepping closer, she felt the need to vomit. In the two jars was something, which looked uncannily much like a human heart and brain. What there made her want to vomit was, that the two organs were cut open like by desiccation, and the neon-green fluid around didn't make it any better. Tiny bubbles stuck to each edge and curve of the slimy things.

"Why do you keep all these things?" She walked around and looked with disgust on the jars. "Is it some sort of collection or what?"

"What characterises a collection to you?" he asked without looking at her, but continued sorting some jars in his end of the office.

For a second, Isolde looked puzzled but then rolled her eyes in realisation. "Of course, how stupid of me. Sorry for asking."

"You should be sorry for being so curious."

Crackling and then a loud pop from the fireplace interrupted the discussion between them. Isolde looked over and saw that her trunks had appeared, neatly placed on top of each other. Nola meowed and moved restless in her carrier. Isolde hurried over and was right about to unlock the carrier, when Severus' sharp words rung in her ears.

"You do not let that creature out in here."

"But she's frightened."

"I said no! I don't want to risk any of my jars to get crushed, because your pet is being hysterical. Now sit down and be quiet. I can't concentrate, if you keep disturbing me."

Isolde frowned. There it was. The hatred. Again she didn't know why he hated her that much. She hadn't done anything to make him angry. Maybe her presence at the school enough to cause this hate, if not her mere existence. With a sulky look, she sat down on her trunks and kept quiet, while having Nola's carrier in her lap. Nola slowly began to settle down, when feeling its master's arms around the carrier. Severus had always hated pets, especially cats. And her cat was no exception.

After ten minutes or so, there sounded a gentle knocking on the door. Severus only threw a look on the door, which unlocked and opened ajar. Why had it been locked in the first place? The door opened wider, and once fully open, the person stepped inside. A tall witch in green robes and with her hair in a tight bun. A black witch hat neatly placed on her head.

"Good afternoon, Severus."

"Minerva."

The professor looked around, and then saw Isolde standing next to her trunks by the fireplace. Isolde opened her mouth to say something, but McGonagall shook her head.

"There is no need to explain, Ms Snape." She said calm. "If you are ready, then follow me. I'll escort you to the Tower."

Isolde nodded and placed the cat carrier on the top trunk, and used the Hovering Charm on them. McGonagall raised her chin slightly, but turned around to leave the office. Isolde levitated the trunks out of the door, but stopped and looked back over the shoulder.

"See you later, Severus."

Severus didn't reply, but only nodded once. Isolde silently followed McGonagall out of the office, and up from the dungeons. They walked up the thousands of steps by the Grand Staircase, until coming to 7th floor. The portrait of the Fat Lady looked quite surprised by seeing them.

"Well well, a little early, aren't we?" the portrait said to Isolde. "But no password has been made yet, so I cannot give access."

"You will have your password." McGonagall said, and sounded annoyed at the portrait. "The password for this year will be Wigglelitus Higglelitus."

The Fat Lady looked sceptical. "I would like to see how the other students will pronounce that one, Minerva. I'm aware that it not shall be easy for the other Houses to guess, but the passwords really don't have to be that ridiculous."

McGonagall corrected her glasses, and turned to Isolde. "Care to pronounce the password in syllables, Ms Snape?"

Isolde sank a lump in her throat. "Wiggle-lee-tus Higgle-lee-tus."

The Fat Lady still looked sceptical, but swung open. Yet the two witches didn't enter. Instead McGonagall turned to the student next to her.

"I expect you to still attend the Welcome Feast later, right?"

"Of course, Professor."

McGonagall gave her a rare smile and left. Isolde watched her disappear down the corridor, before levitating her trunks inside the common room. She went up the right staircase and was right about to enter the first-year dormitory, but then remembered that she no longer was a first-year. So she continued up the stair to the second-year dormitory. It looked exactly like the one downstairs; the five beds stood in the same places, just like the round fireplace. Isolde smiled and levitated her trunks over to her bed. Nola again moved restless inside her carrier. Isolde quickly placed the carrier on the bed, and unlocked the metal lattice.

"You can come out now, Nola." Isolde smiled. "It's over now."

Slowly the colourful cat stepped elegantly out of the carrier, and Isolde gently scratched its head and down its back, which arched into her touch. Lifting it into her arms, she placed the carrier on the floor, before climbing into the bed.

"It's nice to be back." Isolde smiled, and lay down to look up in the ceiling. Her eyes moved to the clock above the door. Almost 1 pm in the afternoon. What should she do with all these hours? How should she spend the time? She could unpack her stuff, relax in the common room, perhaps she would explore the castle on her own. What secrets would she discover? What secret corridors and passages would be revealed? Would she even find anything? After some time, she decided to relax a bit and closed her eyes. Sleeping certainly hadn't been one of her plans, but only minutes later she was sound asleep.

**Ooo**

Isolde's eyes fluttered open, and she slowly sat up and stretched. It was nice with a little nap. When stopping stretching, she took a look around the dorm, and noticed that trunks had appeared by the other beds. The sunlight, which earlier had shone through the windows, had faded and left the room gloomy. What time was it? The clock above the door gave the answer. It was almost 8.30 pm! _What?!_ Had she slept for that long?!

The sudden sound of many voices entering the tower, laughing and chatting loudly, made Isolde freeze.

"My mum bought me a new skirt and a pair of shorts, before we travelled to Mallorca. It was so hot, that my eyeliner nearly melted…"

The voice was easy to recognise, and judging from the words Mallorca and eyeliner, it must be Mariah Spencer who showed herself off to the other girls.

Isolde sighed annoyed inwardly, and shot up from her bed. Ripping her trunk open, she found forth her pyjamas and threw it on the bed, as her hands rushed to unbutton her coat. Dropping it onto the floor, she discarded her shoes, jeans and top, and went to pick up the pyjamas pants, but then the door burst open and Spencer and her "gang" entered.

"MARIAH, HONESTLY!"

Spencer and the other girls stopped abruptly, and saw how Isolde feverishly tried to cover herself with her red bedspread, blushing above both ears. No wonder since only wearing socks and underwear.

"H-have you never learnt how to knock?!" Isolde yelled.

"You could have put a warning on the door." Spencer spat and went over to her bed, while Claire, Anna and Aurora went to theirs, discreetly glancing at Isolde.

Isolde rolled her eyes annoyed, and grabbed her pyjamas, stormed across the dorm and through the door, which was placed next to Aurora's bed, and into the bathroom. What a great start on a new school year. There was nothing as welcoming as a little argument with your annoying dorm mates the second, they step inwards the door. _What was she thinking?!_ She hated arguments. She found them immature, and a pathetic try to act superiorly. She cursed low by the thought of being forced to live another year with these _bitches_…


End file.
